


Hearts Astray

by vedinamel



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Cheating, F/F, Femslash, Humanstuck, Jealousy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-07-29
Updated: 2014-05-27
Packaged: 2017-12-21 18:50:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 31,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/903655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vedinamel/pseuds/vedinamel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As the human heart is made out of chaos, we do not control what we feel or who we have feelings for or when.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Battle Plan

She was late. She had never been late for anything before and Kanaya was starting to worry. kanaya knew she would arrive at that restaurant at exactly 07:30 pm, but it was 07:35 pm and Kanaya was already running terrible scenarios in her head. Maybe her car crashed or she was being robbed or she was terribly sick! She could be in desperate need of help and Kanaya would be able to help , if she hadn't had made the mistake of waiting for her at the restaurant. This could be her last day on Earth and Kanaya wouldn't be there to say her goodbyes. Oh, what a tragedy! Life can be so unfa-

"Come oooooooon, Kanaya!"

"What?"

Vriska was getting impatient. Kanaya had been looking at the menu for five minutes already and she could swear that her hunger had grown eight fold in those five minutes. Kanaya had never been particularly picky about what to eat and Vriska was starting to get suspicious. She insisted in going to that expensive restaurant, she was wearing her best clothes, she was using her favorite perfume, her favorite earrings and her black lipstick. Her sister, Porrim, had once refereed to that look as Kanaya's 'battle gear'. Hell, she even picked what Vriska was going to wear!

"What's taking you so long?"

"Nothing, I just can't decide what I'm in the mood for at the moment"

"You do know that if we take too long to make an order they'll just kick us out so other people can sit here and eat. Something that I'd love to be doing right now!"

"Sorry. I think I'm almost sure about what I'd like to eat."

"...What's your game, Maryam?"

Ever since they met Vriska had been trying to win Kanaya over. If she had done things her way from the start, she thinks, they would already be an item by now. But noooooooo! Big sister wants her to be subtle! Big sister wants her to be 'tactful'! Big sister Aranea doesn't want her to scare poor Kanaya away with her 'aggressiveness' on the off chance that this could make things between her and Porrim awkward. That's not the Serket way! But it seemed to Vriska that all the waiting and beating-around-the-bushing was finally paying off.

"Come on. You brought me here, to this fancy place, all Maryamed up, and you got that look on your face"

"What look on my face?"

"I can read you like one of those trashy vampire novels you love so much. You got that look when you have something biiiiiiiig to say, but don't know how to start"

"Well, keeping secrecy was a silly idea from the start, giving the circumstances. I haven't been completely honest with you"

"Go on." Vriska smiled. It was what she deemed her most seductive smile, part of her 'Serket Charm'.

"It's obvious I didn't bring you here just to eat dinner. I need something from you"

Now she was giving Kanaya the look. That seductive look that had never failed to make other women swoon, not even after she was left with just one eye to do it. "I'm listening".

"How do I say this? ...I happen to find myself fallen prey to the human dysfunction of amorous inclination"

"Yessssssss?", she said with the voice. Her most seductive voice. The voice that once made Terezi Pyrope feel weak in the knees, the voice that once made Aradia Megido melt. Her 'Serket Charm' was completely 'on'. Kanaya Maryam was going straight into her web and now she couldn't escape even if she wanted to. Vriska would finally have her all for herself and she would make sure this one would stay.

"I feel like my heart doesn't belong to me anymore. I am...there she is!"

"She?"

Vriska turned around just in time to see Rose Lalonde making her way into the restaurant. She looked at her from head to toes. Her hair was blonde, cut short, pale skin covered by an orange and yellow dress. She made her way towards her favorite table, which was right next to where Kanaya and Vriska were sitting.

"Kanaya, who is she?" the 'Serket Charm' was competently gone. It had failed for the first time. It didn't hit it's target because it's target was already drooling for someone else. "Who is she?!"

"Her name is Rose Lalonde. She works at the book store next to my flower shop. She's a terrific writer and she's very cultured and she...she's almost here. Act in a natural manner".

Rose Lalonde. Who does this Lalonde thinks she is to stand in the way of a Serket conquest? This was all Aranea's fault! If she hadn't meddled with her love life this wouldn't be happening. If Vriska had done things her way from the start Kanaya would already be where she belongs (which Vriska believes is the space between her own body and the mattress, preferably wearing nothing but a blindfold and a pair of handcuffs) and this Lalonde would be nothing more than a blur to her. Vriska got closer to Kanaya and whispered.

"You said you needed something from me."

"Yes, that would be advice."

"Advice? Are you fucking with me, Maryam?" Oh, she wished.

"No, I fuck you not, my friend. You have more experience with this type of thing and I was hopping you could give me some pointers. A 'battle plan' if you will"

"You want a battle plan? What about all those trashy books you collect? Couldn't you have gotten a fucking battle plan from them?"

"Well, unless Rose glows in the dark and wields a chainsaw to deliver righteous punishment under the moonlight, I'm afraid I don't know how to proceed"

"Wait...vampires that glow in the dark with chainsaws? Kanaya, what the fuck have you been reading?"

"Rainbow Drinker, by Andrew Hussie. But this is not important, what's important in the present moment is that you help me with my heart's predicament."

"You want my help? I'll give you my help. HEY BLONDIE!"

Rose Looked at the one eyed woman at the table next to hers. Not only her, but the entire restaurant. Such a shame that people with such manners somehow find a way into that establishment from time to time. The woman's choice of clothing was very elegant, Rose would give her that much, but her hair was a mess. Rose couldn't help but to compare the woman to a pirate due to the blackened left lens of her glasses. Well, she sure sounded like one.

"YEAH, I'M TALKING TO YOU! SIT OVER HERE!"

"I must ask you, ma'am, that you do not scream at me, I can hear you just fine from here, which is barely two meters from where you are. Also I am fairly content with this table, but thank you for your offer. Oh. Kanaya".

Rose smiled as she saw her acquaintance. That smile that would never fail to make Kanaya blush. She stood up and took a seat at the table where the flower girl and her loud pirate friend were.

"I think I'll accept your charming friend's offer, the company she seems to keep makes it quite tempting, I must say."

Kanaya couldn't help but let a giggle escape her lips. She smiled wide, in a way Vriska had never seen before. 

"It's good to see you Rose, I didn't expect to see you here. Oh, this is Vriska Serket. She's the little sister of Porrim's girlfriend"

"So, Rose!" Vriska said, putting one arm around Kanaya, resting her hand on her shoulder "does the book store really pay you well enough for you to afford this kind of fancy place? Because, you know, a woman like you, dressed like that, kinda clashes with the pleasant ambient.”

"Vriska!" Kanaya's voice carried a mix of surprise, worry and anger. 

"Oh, right. No Offence. I'm just saying. That bright orange dress, ya know"

"Oh, none taken. I'm here because this is a special day. Today my first novel just hit the shelves and I'm here to celebrate. And who better to celebrate the success of my career as a writer with than my darling friend Kanaya and her oh-so-lovely friend."

"Girlfriend, actually".

Kanaya's eyes widened with the surprise. She felt the world spin as Vriska kissed her on the cheek in front of Rose. She could feel her heart beat hard in her chest, as if it wanted to get out. She wanted to say something, but her voice faultered. No word came out when she opened her mouth.

"Today is our one month anniversary and I wanted to treat her to something nice. Something that she deserves. Something special that I have no problems with giving her. That only I can give her. But any friend of my precious Fussy Fangs is welcome to join in our commemoration."

"Oh, I was not aware that you were already seeing someone, Kanaya. Good for you".

"Yes. I am good for her. Veeeeeeeery good"

Kanaya didn't know what to do. What was Vriska doing? She felt somewhat dizzy and broke into a cold sweat. Should she tell the truth? Call Vriska out on the big lie she just told? 

"Are you ladies ready to make your order?"

"You bet!" Vriska said to the waiter "My giiiiiiirlfrend and I will have lobster"

"The same for me" Said Rose.

"Anything to drink?"

"Wine" said the both of them, at the same time "a Marquise, please"

"Excellent choice. I'll bring your order soon".

After the waiter left Rose stood up, saying that she was going to the restroom. After the lavender eyed writer had left her gaze, Kanaya's voice had suddenly returned. She gave Vriska a look that mixed desperation, confusion and anger.

"Vriska, what are you doing?"

"This, Kanaya Maryam, is my battle plan".


	2. Sister Knows Best

"The jealousy thing? Are you serious, Kanaya?"

There it was. That look of disappointment again. Porrim was capable of expressing disappointment in a way that Kanaya believed no one else in the world could express. It made her feel small, ashamed. She stopped brushing her sister's hair for a moment and then resumed her chore. Not that brushing Porrim's hair was actually a chore. It was a little ritual they had, ever since they were little. Every night they would brush each other's hair on Porrim's bed and share everything that happened with them during the day. Everything. However, this night Kanaya was really in a hair brushing mood, and Porrim's look of disappointment made what was supposed to be a moment of bonding into a unpleasant chore.

"I know it's ridiculous, but Vriska has a lot of experience with these things and I trust her judgment"

"What of my judgement? Don't you trust me anymore?"

"Of Course I do!"

"So, you just value Vriska's judgment more than mine?"

"Please don't do this. It's not like that and you know it. It's just...I've tried asking Rose out before and...every single time I start rambling and rambling and lose all my courage along the way. I thought that having someone more experienced and daring with me would be a good idea. Someone to give me a last moment advice and provide moral support so that my courage would not waver. Believe me, if you didn't already have plans I would have asked you to go with me."

"Fair enough. I believe I do not need to point out the obvious flaws of that strategy."

"I don't think it is that obvious, since I don't know what you're talking about, dear sister."

"First, this would only have the slightest chance of working if that Rose of yours feels at least a little bit of attraction for you in the first place."

"Oh." She stopped brushing. Her eyes widened as her brain processed that neglected information. "I hadn't considered that."

Porrim sighed and waited for her little sister to start brushing again before talking. "Jealousy isn't born from nothing. There needs to be at the very least a small spark of attraction for your fake relationship to actually act as fuel. Do you think this Rose has any sort of attraction for you? Have you picked any signs?"

"Well...she has this peculiar way of looking at me."

"A look?"

"Yes. I've observed her closely and I am certain that she looks at me in a different way than she looks at others."

"You 'observed her closely'? You mean you've been stalking her?"

Kanaya blushed and gasped as her sister's accusation hit her like friendly fire. "No! Never! I'm not like that! I just...go to the book store she works at, talk to her, have lunch with her, see how she interacts with other people. With my close observations, that were done during direct casual and mutual interactions with her, thank you very much, I've deduced that she treats me differently than others. She looks at me differently, makes more physical contact with me than with others, she talks to me in a different tone...you know...these little things."

"Very well. Assuming that those are actual signs of romantic interest, and not just the way she acts with friends, this leaves the other problem"

"Which would be...?"

"Is this Rose the kind of person that would dare break up two people, just so she could be with one of them? And if she is, do you really want to be with someone like that?"

Kanaya stopped again. Porrim took the brush from her hands and sat behind her, to work on her little sister's hair. She missed Kanaya's long hair. Oh, how fun it was to brush it and braid it and dye it and accessorize it. When they were little one of their mothers would constantly remind Porrim that her sister was not a doll, but she never really saw what the problem of tending to her sister's hair was. A Maryam must always look her best, and if she can help her sister with that, then what's the harm? But it all changed the day this Rose appeared and told Kanaya that shorter hair would suit her better. Tending to Kanaya's hair never felt the same again.

"See? This is why you should come to your big sister for advice instead of that messy friend of yours. How can you trust someone to make decisions about your love life when she can't even make decent decisions about her wardrobe? Besides, didn't every girlfriend she ever had leave her for just being a terrible person in general?"

"How do you know that?"

"Aranea told me. What I mean is, you shouldn't seek advice from just anyone concerning matters like this. I understand that for some people making the first move is the hardest thing to do, but playing these ridiculous games will result in nothing but you becoming the villain of your own story."

"I think you might be right."

"You know I'm right." 

"I'll talk to Vriska tomorrow, tell her i decided to give up on the jealousy plan. Then I'll go straight to Rose, explain everything to her and ask her out properly!"

"Very good. I'll have picked a outfit for you to wear by the time you get back."

"Porrim! I am absolutely capable of choosing what to wear for a date by myself"

"I just want my little sister to look her best."

"I can do this on my own. Besides, you don't know what she likes."

"Oh. Have this Rose's tastes replaced yours?"

"I just want to look good for her and her alone, okay. 'I came here to conquer your heart and rule over it supreme. But I also brought you a present.'"

"...after that you'll let your hair grow back to it's original length, right?"

 

***********************************************************************

"The jealousy thing? Are you serious, Vriska?"

Aranea followed her sister around the house. Vriska wanted to avoid having this conversation. It's not that she was ashamed of what she was doing, she just didn't want to hear her sister talking and talking and taaaaaaaalking her ear off. But no matter where she went, Aranea followed, and there was no door or wall thick enough to block the sound of her voice (or Porrim's voice. Or Terezi's. Or Aradia's. Which is why their mother forbid them from bringing girlfriends late at night. Serkets have a tendency of getting women who are particularly noisy in bed).

"So whaaaaaaaat? It's not like it's even gonna work that way! I'm just doing that to give Kanaya a taste of what she has been missing because she spends too much time drooling over miss Oh-I'm-So-Smart-And-Obnoxious and didn't notice the freaking treasure chest that was right beside her all this time. You'll see, she'll forget all about that pale blonde in just a few days. Hell, I can make her forget that bitch ever existed in one night!"

"Just...don't screw up, okay?" 

"What does it matter to you?"

"Porrim and Kanaya are very close and I don't want your actions interfering with my love life. What will she think of me if my little sister turns her little sister into a sobbing mess?"

"That won't happen. I have everything planned out. Eeeeeeeeverything planned. For Kanaya I have aaaaaaaall the plans. I'll guarantee that she'll get all the Vriska she can handle and enjoy! Besides, if there is someone interfering with someone else's love life it is you!"

"Me? Water did I do?"

" 'Oh Vriska, go slow with her', 'You are too aggressive, Vriska, you'll scare her away', 'No, Vriska, pinning her against a wall and shoving your tongue in her mouth is not being 'tactful''. I'm done listening to you, I'm doing things my way now. From now on, I'll take care of my love life and you take care of...wait...did you say 'water' instead of 'what'?"

"No, I didn't"

"Yes you did! You totally diiiiiiiid! You're seeing that Meenah again, aren't you? You are cheating on Porrim and you are worried that if I get it on with her sister-"

"I'm not cheating! Meenah and I broke up in good terms and we are just friends now".

"Suuuuuuuure you are. Well, I'm not gonna meddle with your love life, so whatever"

"I'm serious, it was a mutual no-hard-feelings break up. On that night we went to the-"

"Urgh, you already told me how you two broke up, I don't need to hear it again!"

"Yes, but there were some things I neglected to tell and my narrative left some things ambiguous, now is the perfect time for me to clear things up!"

"I don't wanna hear it! I don't care!" Vriska started walking again. Goddamned architects! They must have done one decent thick wall that wouldn't let the noise coming from her sister's mouth go into her ears.

"But Vriska, this is important to me! You need to know exactly what happened! On that night we went to...". Aranea started following her little sister around the house again, retelling in a dramatic way the very detailed story of how she broke up with her ex and how that break up lead her to meet Porrim. She told it in the hallway, she told it on the stairs, she told it in the bathroom and she told it in Vriska's room. The woman in black fled across the house, and her sister followed.

"Why did I lose my eye and not my ears?!"


	3. It's Nice to Meet You, Rose Lalonde

Kanaya wanted to start by informing Vriska that she didn't want to proceed with the jealousy tactic, and would instead go with a more direct approach. However, Porrim convinced her to go straight to Rose first. Her sister was afraid that her 'messy friend' would fill her head will more bad ideas. Kanaya delayed it for a few hours. She said she was 'gathering courage', but after three hours Porrim said she had already accumulated enough courage and dragged her to her car. The beating of Kanaya's heart grew faster as they approached the bookstore. When Porrim parked her car Kanaya was breathing heavily, shaking and was starting to sweat a little.

"I don't know if I can go through with this, sister."

"Kanaya, get a grip." She sighed. This wasn't like her sister. The Kanaya she knew would keep her cool around her crushes, what did this Rose do to her? Then again, all she ever did was fuss with her crushes, but she never really did the actual first move before, did she? "Is that her?" From where they were they could see Rose through the front window of the bookstore. She was talking to someone, probably a client. "She seems like any other human being. See? That lady is talking to her just fine."

"That lady is not asking her out. I hope."

"Don't you think that maybe you just painted this image in your head in which Rose is some kind of transcendental flawless being?"

"My view of her is very down to earth and not romanticized in any way, okay. It's just...she's so..."

"Normal. I don't know what you have going on in your head, but by the way you are behaving I presume it is not at all down to earth and very romanticized. Don't do this to yourself. If you keep this up you'll only become disappointed when you meet the real Rose."

"...I think you might be right..."

"You know I'm right. Now, just relax. Close your eyes. Breath slowly and empty your mind."

Kanaya followed Porrim's instructions. Delaying her contact with Rose was helping her calm down, but just a little. That was an agonizing moment. Being so close to something she wants, but being so afraid of reaching towards it to catch it.

"Now, I want you to forget about Rose Lalonde. That woman that makes you so nervous isn't real. She's just a character in a book that you read long ago. She doesn't exist and can't make you nervous, she can't make you hesitate, because she's not real and will never be."

Kanaya seemed to relax. She stopped shaking and was breathing normally again. She opened he eyes, looked at her sister and nodded.

"That woman over there", she pointed at Rose,"is someone you never met before. She's a normal person like you, with qualities, but also flaws. Her name may sound familiar to you, it may remind you of a imaginary perfect woman that you forgot, but she isn't that woman, and will never be." She placed a hand on Kanaya's shoulder and smiled. "I think is time for you to meet that normal woman. She's flawed, but I hope she can bring you happiness nonetheless."

"Thank you"

"You're welcome. Now let's go."

Jade rubbed her stomach with a smile. Her lunch break was almost over and it was time to get back to work. It sure is a marvelous thing how a satisfied stomach can make you ready for a long afternoon of work. It also helps when it's a work you enjoy. On her way back to the flower shop she saw Porrim, standing in front of the bookstore in front of her place of work. it was such a pretty day, and running into a friendly face was making it even better.

"Hi Porrim! If you came looking for Kanaya, she isn't at the shop, today is her day off."

"Hi to you too, Jade", she greeted the younger woman with a smile, "Kanaya is right over there. I'm just here to watch her progress."

"You mean she's actually gonna...", her jaw dropped and her eyes widened. Kanaya Maryam abandoning the fussing tactic and going for a direct approach? That was something she just had to see.

"Don't you need to go back to work, dear?"

"It can wait. Hehehe."

All the noise from outside stopped completely when the automatic door closed behind her. Rose wasn't where she was before, so Kanaya started walking around the store, scanning the ambient carefully. She saw Rose organizing some books on a shelve. Organizing books. She was organizing books. She was doing something very mundane, boring even. Porrim was right, that blonde woman with pale skin wasn't scary at all. She was just a normal woman, doing normal things.

"Okay. I can do this."

She began walking towards her. Her eyes focused on that normal woman, who she was going to normally ask out and with whom she would have a normal date. She stopped behind Rose, looked at her from top to bottom (delaying her eyes on the bottom), took a deep breath and greeted her.

"Hi Rose."

Rose turned to face her. Kanaya looked into her lavender eyes and her heart started beating faster than ever before, her face became warmer as she blushed violently under the hypnotic gaze of those shiny godly lavender eyes. Rose smiled, and that smile's radiance made Kanaya's legs start shaking again, for a moment she thought her legs would betray her and she would fall to the ground, unable to sustain herself in front of that immeasurable beauty. No! You are doing it again, Kanaya! That isn't Rose! That isn't Rose at all! That's that romanticized caricature again. Focus, Kanaya! Focus!

"Hello Kanaya. I was just thinking about...are you okay?"

Kanaya closed her eyes and took a deep breath again. She felt herself calming down, but her heart was still beating as it it wanted out of her chest. "It's nothing, I'm fine. You were saying?"

"I was just thinking about you. We received these today and I was planning on calling you as soon as a chance presented itself". 

Rose handed to Kanaya the latest volume of her favorite series. 'Rainbow Drinker volume 6 - Fragrance of Rosemary'. It is supposed to be the last volume and everybody is feeling a bit uneasy about it. The cover art depicted a young woman with glowing skin, with the left arm she held a hooded woman by the waist and wielded her trusty chainsaw in her right hand as the hooded woman rested her head on her lover's shoulder, with a serene expression. Kanaya always identified herself with the main character for some reason. Seeing the cover art helped her calm down further. In the last volume there was some turbulence in the relationship between the heroic vampire and her girlfriend, the stuck up yet charming fortune teller, but the cover of this book suggested that they might make things work by the end of the story. Kanaya had a lot of emotional investment done in that couple. If there was hope for them, then there was hope for her and Rose.

"How fortuitous! I've been waiting for this with great anticipation!"

"I stopped at the first volume", said Rose, "the story just seemed silly and boring and appeared to drag forever. Patience is a virtue, but when the read doesn't seem worth it, being a virtuous person starts to lose it's appeal. However, since you love it so much, I suppose I'll give it another try soon. Truthfully, I mostly enjoyed the fortune teller. Such a fascinating character. Too bad some people don't know how to appreciate such an exquisite woman, and find her boring in some sense."

"Yes, she is most fascinating indeed."

"So, can I be of further use to you? Or did you stop by just to see me?"

"Yes."

"To which question?"

"The latter.", Kanaya remembered watching Porrim flirt with other women before, she would often give them this alluring smile. Kanaya tried to replicate her sister's smile and leaned against a shelf. "Also, I came here to ask something."

"I'm listening." There they were. That peculiar look in her eyes, that sweet tone of voice, the charm of her smile enhanced by the black lipstick. Kanaya's black lipstick, which she had borrowed a few days ago. She took a step forward and touched Kanaya's arm. "What is it that you wish to ask?"

"I...wow...I can't believe I made it this far..."

If Rose didn't understand what she was talking about, she didn't show. She stood there, looking at Kanaya, her hand resting against her arm, her expression frozen. 

"Okay. I...I think you are a fascinating woman. You are very charming and sweet, and I can't help but admire you. I feel like my days are brighter when you are around and I wish to brighten your days as well. What I want to ask is...", she let go of the book, allowing it to fall to the ground. She took both of Rose's hands into hers and looked straight into her eyes. "Rose Lalonde, will you go out with me? On a Date?"

There was a sudden moment of complete silence. All the workers and costumers of the bookstore were now staring at the two young women. Rose didn't answer right away, and her expression didn't change. The seconds between Kanaya's question and Rose's answer seemed to pass like hours. Finally her lips moved and Kanaya heard her say.

"What about Vriska?"

From somewhere in the store came a 'Oooooh' sound. Someone seemed to enjoy where things were going.

"Oh, that. Vriska is just a friend. She thought it would be a good idea to play the jealousy tactic. But I don't wish to proceed with this type of emotional manipulation game. I came here to do what I've been trying to do all the times I've been here previously. My affection is towards you and you alone."

"Are you sure she's just a friend?"

"Yes, of course. Why do you ask?"

Rose leaned towards her, her face slowly approaching Kanaya's. The brunette's face became redder as she became closer. Kanaya closed her eyes tightly and felt Rose's soft lips pressing against her left cheek. The kiss left a black lipstick mark with the shape of Rose's lips on Kanaya's face. She felt a bold of electricity running though her body as the information of what just happened sank in her brain. Her eyes widened and what was supposed to be a replication of Porrim's seductive smile was now a goofy smirk.

"Kanaya Maryam, I'd love to go out on a date with you."

"...It's a date?"

"It's a date."

"It's a date, everyone!" Kanaya proclaimed to the people in the store "It's a date!"

Outside the store applauses could be heard coming from inside, celebrating the public declaration of mutual romantic interest between those two women. Porrim was slow clapping on the sidewalk as Jade jumped with joy for her jade eyed friend, shouting 'she did it' and 'she actually did it'. Kanaya left the store with the biggest smile Porrim had ever seen in her sister's face.

"There she is!", said Porrim dramatically, "Our heroic adventurer returns after her quest is completed! And look, she bares a badge, a condecoration for her successful conquest of foreign lands!"

"And in about time too!" said Jade, hugging her friend for finally showing some backbone in the romantic department.

"I'll pick her up at eight. I have a date! I'll pick her up at eight because we are going on a date!"

"Indeed you are. Now let us return home so I can prepare you for tonight."

"Porrim, I can choose my own clothing." They waved goodbye to Jade and headed to the car.

"I know, but I'm sure I can get you something that will absolutely stun her!"

"You don't know what she likes."

"Well, I know she likes you."

"Heh. Yeah." she blushed again.

 

*****************************************

Vriska admired herself in the mirror. She tried to make her hair less messy, but gave up half a minute later. She was enjoying the new look, she thought that she made blonde hair look good. She blew a kiss at her reflection and walked triumphantly towards her door. She opened it only to find her path blocked by her sister. She was with her arms folded, tapping her right foot on the floor and, by a stroke of luck, she happened to be in a spot where the light reflected on her glasses and made them seem to shine, giving her a menacing look she usually didn't have.

"Where are you going?"

"Kanaya's. I'll take what is mine"

"Are you really going to court a Maryam dressed like that? If you have time to dye your hair you have time to pick better clothes. What about those clothes Kanaya picked for you?"

The clothes she wore at the restaurant. Kanaya had picked them for Vriska when they were starting to hang out together. They had seen each other around town a few times, but when their sisters started dating was when they truly started paying attention to each other. Kanaya thought a little shopping would help them start to form a bond, Vriska agreed because she enjoyed being in the company of someone as cute as Kanaya. It was when Aranea picked up signs of Vriska developing an attraction towards Kanaya (that is, she caught her staring at Kanaya's ass) that she started meddling.

"I said I'll do things my way now! I'll dress what I want to dress. Kanaya will like me as I am, not as something I pretend to be."

"Then why did you dye your hair? Are you trying to compete with this Lalonde person?"

"I dyed my hair because I felt like it! Now get out of my way!" She shoved her sister, clearing enough space for her to get out of her room. "I'm on a mission!"

"Geez, you just needed to ask"

"Fuuuuuuuuck you!"

"Vriska!"

"What?!"

"...Good luck." Aranea smiled, giving her sister a thumbs up and a wink. "Go get your woman."

"Heh", she flipped her hair, a smug smirk forming in her lips "I already have aaaaaaaall the luck I need, sis."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In act 5 we see that Kanaya had a unrealistic (maybe even flawless) idea of a Troll!Rose, but was somewhat disappointed after she started monitoring her in the Veil and gradually started to grow found of the real Rose. I'll try to reimagine this little arc in the Rosemary portion of this fic, I hope you'll enjoy it. 
> 
> Here Kanaya and Jade work at the same flower shop and Vriska is now blonde, those are but little references to the wonderful godly perfect and radiant fic 'Cahoots', by sunbreaksdown. You should totally read it. My view of 'Cahoots' is completely down to earth and not romanticized in any way, mind you.


	4. Propriety of Vriska Serket

"This one?"

Kanaya stayed with a silly smile in her lips ever since she walked out of the bookstore. She was immensely happy that the woman that she had been daydreaming about for so long agreed to go out with her, but there was something else there. A sense of pride. Whenever it came to love interests, Kanaya was always reluctant, making it necessary for the other person to make the first move (if they ever made the first move at all).

"What about this one?"

Finally being completely open about it for the first time had filled her with a sense of renewed motivation, she felt more courageous, more daring. She had never been one to shy away from her duties, and whenever a friend was in need of help she would be overwhelmed with a desire (almost a need) to help, hence the nick name 'Fussyfangs'. However, the romantic department was where her urgency would take a halt. Whenever she caught herself trying to be open with a girl that had caught her eye she would resort to her defense mechanism and start rambling endlessly.

"Oh, you'd look dazzling in this one!"

But now that was the past! From this day forward no longer would Kanaya's courage falter, no longer would she hide in the middle of a labyrinth or rambling! From this day-

"Just try this one, please!"

"If I try that one, will you allow me to resume my preparations by myself?"

"Yes, I will."

"Very well then."

Porrim had given her a long black dress, not only one of her own creations, but one she was particularly proud of. It showed more cleavage than Kanaya would usually show (which is not at all) and left her left leg and back exposed. It was comfortable, but seeing that dress being worn by someone whose body wasn't all covered in tattoos was somewhat strange.

"I made that when I was your age. It makes me so happy to see you wearing it." She let out a soft giggle, she was starting to sound like one of their mothers. She stood behind her sister, placing her hands on Kanaya's shoulders "I know it's a bit more revealing than what you usually wear, but this will show Rose that you mean business."

"I think you might be right."

"You know I'm right. Now, let's take care of that make up of yours."

"You said that if I tried the dress you'd let me finish my preparation alone."

"I know, but there is just so much I could-"

Kanaya placed a finger against her sister’s lips, making her instantly silent. 

"I am aware that you only wish to help me look my best, but this is something I must do by myself." 

Porrim laughed, amused about how serious and dramatic Kanaya sounded when she was just talking about putting some make up on. But then again, this had been the first time she had taken initiative and asked someone else out instead of being asked out. Perhaps the feeling of agency that resulted from that was making her take the situation and everything related to it more seriously. She took the first step by herself, maybe she wants to give the next steps on her own as well.

"I think you...oh."

"Say it." The smile that adorned Kanaya's lips had changed now. What was a smile of joy and pride was now a smile of playfulness. "Finish that sentence."

"I'll let you finish your preparations now."

She was about to leave Kanaya's room when her sister closed the door. She poked Porrim on her sides, in the spots she knew her big sister was ticklish. Porrim protested between fits of laughter, trying to evade her sister's attacks only to get herself cornered. Kanaya attacked mercilessly, hitting all of Porrim's ticklish spots vehemently, but also paying attention to her movements, ready to catch her if she tried to escape her tickling torment through some opening.

"Say it! Say it! I shall not cease until you say it!"

"HAHAHAHAHAHA-OKAY-HAHAHAHA-I THINK YOU MIGHT BE RIGHT! I THINK YOU MIGHT BE RIGHT! HAHAHAHA!"

As she had said, she put her violent tickling attacks to an end, taking a few steps back to give her sister some space to breathe. Porrim was still having some fits of giggle, leaning against the wall and slowly sliding down until she was sitting on the floor. She wiped some tears off her face and took a deep breath. Kanaya added some smug to her playful smile. She placed one hand on her hip and pointed at Porrim with the index finger of the other hand, saying in a triumphant voice.

"You know I'm right!"

Stopping at another red light, Kanaya took the extra time to check her make up again. All okay there, just like the previous five times she checked it in the rear-view mirror, and the previous six times she walked in and out of her room to look herself in the mirror to verify if everything was in order. Her phone vibrated, a message from Porrim. 'Go+o+d luck, do+n't let her escape' it said. The direction Kanaya took to Rose's house lead her to pass by Vriska's residence. Suddenly she remembered, she still hadn't informed her of the good news and that she wouldn't have to pretend to be Kanaya's girlfriend anymore.

Kanaya felt relieved that that silly tactic wasn't needed anymore, and so soon too! She felt very uncomfortable at the restaurant last night, but Vriska sure could act! Making physical contact as much as she could, giving her compliments, giving her that love-struck look. Vriska had been with more women than Kanaya (when they were starting to become friends they learned they had one girlfriend in common, Terezi Pyrope), so it was to be expected that she would know how to behave. However, groping her butt as they were leaving was a bit too much. She wasn't even sure if Rose was looking at them at that moment.

Kanaya parked her car in front of the Serket residence. 7:30 pm, she still had time. Oh, it would be so good to take that weight off of her friend's shoulders. Vriska wouldn't have to follow the 'battle plan' anymore and she would be free to resume her pursue of that woman she had an eye on. Vriska had mentioned that she had a new romantic target, but didn't say her name, she only smiled. Whoever she is, Kanaya thought that she might be someone very dear to her friend.

"Vriska!" screamed Aranea, after her sister unceremoniously shoved her away to clear the exit that she was blocking. She was just trying to look for her little sister. Those plain jeans, that old shirt and that boring jacket just weren't right for what Vriska was planning to do. There are some procedures that a woman must attend in order to court a Maryam, and that look wasn't part of it.

"What?!" Vriska screamed back. She had already told her big sis that she didn't want her meddling with her love life anymore. It was her who made her take a painfully slow approach to Kanaya in order to not 'scare' her. Vriska thought that that was a bunch of bull. Well, some of her ex-girlfriends said that she came in 'too strong' on them, but the fact that they all eventually got stuck in her web proved that there was nothing wrong with her M.O.

"...Good luck." Aranea gave her sister a thumbs up and a wink. She was so jealous of how close Kanaya and Porrim were. She and Vriska had never been tight like that. Sure, they had a few moments of sisterly bonding before (those were Araneas favorite stories, in fact), but she just didn't feel close to her little sister. She thought it was about time to change that. "Go get your woman."

"Heh." Vriska flipped her hair, a smug smile taking form on her lips. "I already have aaaaaaaall the luck I need, sis."

The door bell rang, both sisters looked at the door and then back at each other. It rang again and from outside they could hear a voice calling Vriska's name. Kanaya's voice.

"What did I tell ya? Aaaaaaaall the luck, sis. All of it!"

Vriska opened the front door and there she was. Wearing a fancy but enticing black dress, green eyeshadow, black lipstick and her favorite earrings. Vriska Serket now owned the monopoly of the world's luck.

"Hey, Kanaya! What a pleasant surprise!" She flipped her hair. She was using the voice, the look, the smile. She was assaulting Kanaya directly with her full 'Serket Charm' and it would not fail this time. "It's way too cold outside to be dressed like that. Come on in."

"Thanks." Kanaya had never been to the Serket household before. The living room was a lot neater than she expected. Then again, expecting that Vriska's entire family would be as messy as she is was a silly thought. It would be truly terrifying if it were right, though. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

"Oh, noooooooo! In fact, Aranea was just leaving."

"I was? But it was you who...oh, that's right! I was just leaving, silly me." She picked up her car keys that were inside a little bowl on the center table and rushed to the door "Bye girls! Have fun!" and with that she closed the front door, leaving the house for Vriska and Kanaya.

"Have a seat" said Vriska, presenting the couch to Kanaya, "I'll get some beers for us." Ah, yes. The beers. If there was something that the Serket home never ran out of, it was beer. Vriska always made sure of that. As long as she had beer, she could tolerate her mother. No amount of alcohol could help her tolerate Aranea's endless stories, however. And she had tried all amounts of alcohol for that. Aaaaaaaall of them. 

"Actually, I'm in a bit of a hurry. I have something important to do tonight."

"Really?", said the one eyed (newly) blonde, with fake disappointment in her voice, bringing two cans of beer from the kitchen. "You really can't make some time for lil' old Vriska? I was so eager to see my giiiiiiiirlfriend tonight." She offered a can to Kanaya, who refused by shaking her head. Vriska stayed where she was, motionless, holding the beer can until Kanaya got the message and took the can from her hands, but didn't open it.

"Yes. About that. There has been a change of plans. There is no longer a need for us to make Rose jealous."

"Seriously? That's some good news you bring with you, Fussyfangs!" She opened her can and sat on the sofa. She patted the cushion next to the one she was sitting, inviting Kanaya by her side. The brunette sat down where she was asked to and looked at Vriska.

"Good news indeed. I asked her out this afternoon."

"...Sorry, you did what?" Vriska's eye widened and the seductive tone she was using was gone. 

"I went to the bookstore where she works and I asked her on a date." She blushed, remembering the scene. "You should have been there, my friend. Everyone applauded when she responded positively to my request. I also explained that you aren't really my girlfriend, that you were just helping me with..."

Kanaya's voice gradually diminished in Vriska's ears, as if her beloved was distancing herself from her. Vriska felt dizzy, she was struck by a sudden headache and the room started to spin. She tightened her grip on the beer can and crushed the aluminium cylinder with her hand, covering her hand with the alcoholic beverage. This was bad. This was really really bad. The part of Vriska's brain that was still capable of coherent thoughts connected the dots for her. The fancy dress. Kanaya asking the pale bitch out. She was on her way to meet with that albino mutant right now! She was going out with miss I'm-so-smart-and-obnoxious and she made a stop to rub that on her face!

"Vriska?" Kanaya jumped when her friend crushed her beer can. Vriska had a distant stare in her eye, as if the lights were on, but there was nobody home. "Is something wrong?"

The Lalonde bitch had won. She would get Kanaya all for herself and there was nothing Vriska could do about it. That's it. That's the end.

 

Fin.

 

 

No! She won't give up! She can't! That's not the Serket way! Vriska had to do something. Anything. She had to make a move and it had to be now! She threw the crushed can away, held Kanaya's face with both her hands and pulled her into a kiss. The dizziness, the headache, the spinning. All this went away as soon as she felt the softness of Kanaya's lips against hers. Kanaya's sweet perfume was being tainted by the smell of the cheap beer that soaked Vriska's hand. Kanaya pushed Vriska away, breaking the kiss.

"Vriska, what do you think you're doing?"

Vriska stayed motionless for a moment. Faster than Kanaya could react, Vriska suddenly jumped on her, making Kanaya lay on her back. She grabbed Kanaya's wrists and kept them pressed against the couch, her superior strength rendering Kanaya's arms motionless. She looked into Kanaya's confused jade colored eyes and kissed her again, with her tongue invading Kanaya's mouth. She felt the target of her affection struggling under her body, but she prolonged the kiss for as long as she could. She broke the kiss only due to the necessity to breath and bit Kanaya's lower lip, her teeth superficially cutting the soft flesh of Kanaya's lips. She was breathing heavily and her heart was beating so hard she thought Kanaya could hear it.

"This...is what I should...have done long ago.”

When she thought she had caught enough air she went in for another kiss. There was no resistance from Kanaya this time. She stopped kissing Kanaya's lips to kiss her chin and from there she worked her way down to her neck. 

"Vriska...stop!"

"No." she looked at Kanaya with her eye full of desire. Her voice was different, she could barely recognized her own voice. "I have you for myself now and I won't let anything change that. I'll let that bitch know...I'll let everyone know, you are property of Vriska Serket now!"

She kissed and licked Kanaya's neck repeatedly, and when she bit her, her bite was strong. She sank her teeth in Kanaya's soft skin, leaving her mark on Kanaya's flesh. She bit her again, and again, and again, bruising the left side of her neck with pleasure. A smile formed in her lips when, on the forth bite, Kanaya let escape a moan from her mouth. She released Kanaya's arms and ceased her voracious biting of her neck, but remained on top of her. She rested her head on Kanaya's chest, inhaling her perfume. This was it. Everything she wanted and she had it all.

"I love you, Kanaya Maryam. I love you and this is where you belong. With me."

Kanaya didn't say a word. Vriska closed her eye and they stayed in that position for a few seconds, but if they had stayed like that for a thousand years, Vriska would still think that little perfect moment ended too soon.

"...I need to go, Vriska"

"No. You're already where you need to be."

"Get off me, Vriska."

"No."

Using all her strength, Kanaya pushed Vriska off her. The Serket hit her head when she landed on the floor and Kanaya used that moment to make a dash for the door. Vriska stood up and went after her, calling her name, but when she made it to the door Kanaya was already in her car and drove away quickly. Vriska made the futile attempt to run after the car. She ran across the street, screaming Kanaya's name as she saw her car vanish in a curve. Vriska sat on the concrete road and sighed heavily. She felt her phone vibrate, it was Aranea.

"Vriska, is Kanaya still there?"

"No...she left..."

"Oh crud! What did you do?!"

Vriska smiled, licking her lips. "I left my mark."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I always imagined how things would be like if Vriska where the one with red feelings and Kanaya was the oblivious one. Thank goodness we have fanfiction for that. Although Rosemary is my 'otp', VrisKan is special since it was a VrisKan fanart that made me read Homestuck.


	5. Let's Ruin Our Friendship

Vriska felt heavy. When she jumped over Kanaya, the poor fashion enthusiast could not maintain her balance and simply landed on her back. When she tried to push Vriska away again the stronger woman immobilized her arms in order to allow her assault of affection. Kanaya felt a chill moving up her spine as Vriska kissed her again, with her invasive tongue in Kanaya's mouth. No matter how much she moved, Vriska had her pinned down, and her struggling intensified as the need for air grew. Her body seemed to warm up when the one eyed blonde bit her lower lip, cutting the inside part, giving Kanaya a taste of her own blood when Vriska let go. They were both breathing heavily and the room started to spin.

"This...is what I should...have done long ago.” Said Vriska, looking down at her in a way Kanaya had never seen someone look at her before. Where was this coming from? And why now? They had been friends for quite some time now, why didn't she say anything before? Kanaya's brain slowly processed that information. That night at the restaurant. The way she talked, the way she looked at her, the way she touched her.It was all so clear now. Funny how Vriska was missing an eye, but Kanaya was completely blind while still having both. How could she be so dense? 

 

***************************************

 

"Why? Why? Why? Seriously, Fussyfangs, you made me watch this thing already!" Said Vriska, laying down on the larger couch, letting out grunts of disapproval. Kanaya sat at the smaller couch, pressing the 'Open/Close' button of the remote. The Blue Ray Player swallowed the disc and began transmitting it's data to the smart TV. Usually Vriska would be glad to make use of the Maryam's home entertainment system, but being forced to watch 'The Mediation' for the fourth time this week just took the fun out of it. She would feel the urge to punch herself whenever she remembered that it was only the first movie of a series, with more to come. It would take years for them to finish that B.S. and Kanaya would doubtlessly force her to watch every single one of them.

"Oh , but this is singular, Vriska! It's the special collector's edition and it includes all the best scenes they didn't include from the book. I've been waiting for this for a long period of time."

"But this is just so awful! What kind of romance is that in which a third wheel dictates how a couple should act? If they wanna fuck then let them fuck, if they want to kill each other then just let them spill blood everywhere. If it doesn't end in a threesome, then what's the freaking point?"

"She's not a third wheel, she's..." Kanaya sighed. Vriska had grown on her quicker than she had thought possible. She wanted to share some things with her, but their tastes just weren't as compatible as she had hoped. "Okay. If you feel that way then let us watch something else. I'm sure we must have something that is more to your taste."

"That's more like it, Fussyfangs! I believe I saw 'Judgment of The Spider Queen' among your vampire crap last I was here." She stood up, walked to the part of the shelf that was reserved for Kanaya's movies and started to go through them. She would check the cover and then toss them behind her, but with enough force that they would land on the sofa she was laying on. She didn't want to damage Kanaya's stuff, but she didn't want her to have hopes that she would be all neat and organized at some point in time. "Ha! Here it is! Badass pirate babe, here I come!...No. Kanaya, don't."

"What is it?", she blinked with confused eyes "I didn't move a muscle."

"Your face is like one of those crappy novels of yours. It's all there, I just need to read it. You are hurt that I don't wanna watch your bullshit threeway romance crap."

"Perish the thought, my friend. I'd never be hurt by such small matters. I am not an infant."

"Buuuuuuuullshit! I call bullshit! Are you gonna cry if I play my movie? Hmmmm? Are you?"

"Proceed already. And it's not your movie, it's mine."

"Okay then. I win!". She was about to press the 'Open/Close' button, but then pressed 'Play' instead, initiating the movie that already was in the machine.

"Giving up while you are at the top?"

"Nah." Vriska sat down next to Kanaya. "My sis is gonna take yours to our place tonight and I want to be at Sleepinglikearockville before your sis starts with her screaming. I'll just have to remember this sorry excuse for a movie and I'll pass out out of boredom and won't need to hear your sis screaming 'oh Aranea, slap me harder!'" 

"That's more information than I needed. Now because of you I'll need to remove my brain for some well deserved bleaching, thank you very much."

"You think that's bad? You should have heard her ex and her goddamned fish puns! I didn't know there were so many fishy things that rhymed with-"

"I do not have the need to know, thank you". 

"I can't bring noisy girlfriends home, but when Aranea does our mom let's them scream all night long. I'll have a serious talk with that spider bitch." If there was something Mom Serket loved unconditionally, it was spiders. Vriska had terrible nightmares in which she was a kid again and her mother feed her to her pet tarantula, something she used to threaten her daughter with a lot back when she was a misbehaving child. It never worked, but it sure found a way into her head. "What about ya? I remember that Terezi was awfully noisy with me." She leaned forward, her lips just a couple of millimeters away from kanaya's ear, and she whispered. "Did you use to make her scream too?"

Kanaya blushed and pushed her friend away. Terezi was an ex they had in common and Vriska liked to think that this meant that her and Kanaya had already done it by proxy.

"That information is private." she said, folding her arms and looking the other way.

"Oh, I get it. You were the one doing all the screaming, weren't you?" A smirk formed in Vriska's mind as she imagined what sort of noises Kanaya usually did in bed.

"What volume are the noises I make, or If I'm the one making the most noise, are none of your concern."

"Don't worry. You'll find someone who will make you scream to your hearts content soon enough." She gave her the smile. Most women would fall by that alone, and there where only two women who needed the full extension of her 'Serket Charm' in order to be 'tamed'. Terezi was one of them. Kanaya, however, was showing to be able to resist the smile. Vriska hated that. Maybe she should use the look as well.

"What about yourself? Does the little Serket have a new prey?". She awaited a response, but Vriska refused to answer, instead just looking at her with her one good eye, with a smile on her face. After a brief silence she finally spoke.

"You'll find out soon."

"Why? Does she live around here or...oh no, we are missing the movie! We need to go back to the start."

 

************************************

 

"Whyyyyyyyy, Maryam?" Said Vriska as she looked herself in the mirror. Those clothes weren't her style at all. That skirt, that top, those shoes. She thought she looked like a clown. A very expensive clown.

"But it gives you the most pleasant appearance!" Kanaya really didn't want to impose her tastes on Vriska, she didn't want to ruin things when they just became friends, but that outfit just looked lovely on her. At least she liked to think they were friends, she didn't know for certain how Vriska felt. Sure, Vriska did complain every time she invited her to do something together, but no matter how much she protested, she'd always end up signing up for it in the end. She wasn't sure if they were already building a friendship or if she was just trying to be nice. She thought about slapping herself after thinking that. Vriska, trying to be nice? Why on earth would she do that?

"...You really think so, huh?"

"Definitely!"

"...Whatever, I don't have money to buy something like this anyways"

"I can buy it for you" 

"Really? Since when does a plants sales woman have money to buy something like this?"

"Come on. It's a present. A token of my friendship."

"Heh" , Vriska chuckled,"Friendship, is it? Alright then. YEAH! FREE FANCY STUFF!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, all costumers and salesmen stared at those two young women near the fitting rooms. Vriska pointed at Kanaya, with a big grin in her lips. "MY FRIEND IS BUYING ME FANCY STUFF AND NOT ASKING ANYTHING IN RETURN! WHAT ARE YOUR FRIENDS BUYIN' YA?"

"Vriska" she blushed, feeling somewhat ashamed of being put in the spotlight like that. "your behavior is most-" 

Vriska pulled Kanaya into the fitting room with her, placing an arm around her neck and squeezing their faces together, side by side, in front of the mirror

"You're alright, Maryam. Urgh, what now?"

"I didn't say anything."

"Your face says it all. You want something in return for this get up, don't you?"

"Actually..."

"I knew it! Token of friendship my ass!"

"Your measurements."

"What?"

"I want to make a dress for you."

 

*************************************

 

"Why?" Asked the strange young woman. Kanaya had opened the door to find that her room had been invaded by a stranger. She was laying on her bed (with her shoes on, no less! The nerve!) reading one of Kanaya's favorite books, 'The Sylph of Space'. She was wearing glasses, but one of the lenses was completely painted black. Kanaya presumed that that eye was bad or that she was trying to cover up a scar.

"What is this? Who are you and what are you doing in my room, and in my bed?"

"Heh, you seem to surround yourself with babes.", said the strange one eyed woman, "If I had seen your sister first I'd be in her bed now, not in yours. And then there is this cutie over here." She waved a picture. A picture that Kanaya had hidden in a place she thought no one would ever find. It was a picture of her ex-girlfriend, Terezi Pyrope.

"Surrender it to me this instant!", said Kanaya, her face turning red with anger.

"'Surrender it to me', geez, do you seriously talk like that? You know what, forget that, let's go back to the important question. Why?"

"Why what?! And if someone should be doing interrogations this one should be me! I demand that you tell me why you are in my house and in my-"

"Yeah yeah yeah. My sis is banging your sis and she thought it would be nice if we all met each other. Now that the boring questions are out of the way let's go back to the interesting question. Why do you have a picture of my ex in your panties drawer?"

"Well," Kanaya's face remained red, but no longer due to anger. That wound wasn't completely healed. "we used to go out...wait, were you looking into my panties drawer?"

"Yeah, you got some comfortable stuff too!" the strange woman unzipped her pants and lowered them, showing that she was wearing Kanaya's favorite pair of underwear "It's like wearing nothing at all! Is that how you like it? Feeling like you're wearing nothing under that skirt of yours?"

This was unbelievable. That stranger thought that she could just simply enter her room uninvited, go through her books and her underwear as if they were her own and take the last picture she had of Terezi. This was unacceptable! An outrage! It doesn't matter if she's related to Porrim's new girlfriend, that is no excuse for such behavior! Kanaya began breathing deeply, the anger returning and spreading a warm sensation through her whole body. Without looking, she reached to the nearest object, grabbed it and threw it at the uncouth invader. And then another. And another...

"Get out! Get out! Get out!"

The stranger tried to get up to avoid the improvised projectiles, but her lowered pants prevented her from getting up as quickly as she wanted and she ended up being hit on her head by Kanaya's clock. She let out a scream of pain, lost her balance and fell off the bed. Kanaya ceased her attacks, the sensation of gratification slowly being replaced by the feelings of guilt and worry. She walked to the intruder and saw that she was bleeding. She quickly approached her and got on her knees to verify the severity of the injury.

"I'm sorry, but you made me angry and you are wearing my underwear and..."

The stranger started laughing. A little bit of blood running down her face from her forehead. Kanaya started laughing as well for no reason. Maybe because of the strange situation, or maybe because of the contagious laughter of the injured invader or maybe both. 

"You should have seen your face! For someone so cute you sure can make a scary expression. Name's Vriska, the best Serket you'll ever meet."

"Nice to meet you, I think" , Kanaya was able to quiet down her senseless laughter and wiped a tear of her face. "I'm Kanaya."

"So, Kanaya, are you gonna get me a first aid kit or are you just gonna stare at my underwear?"

"It's my underwear."

"Ha! Not anymore. Besides, you think it looks good on me.

"What? No I don't. Where on Earth did you get such an atrocious idea?"

"Come on, it's written all over your face." 

 

***********************************************

 

The second time Vriska kissed her, she accepted it. No resistance. She welcomed the passionate kiss, if Vriska weren't immobilizing her arms she would have embraced her. It felt good. It felt great! She almost protested when Vriska broke the kiss again to work her way down to Kanaya's neck. For a brief moment she believed she was in heaven, with a gentle but strong angel taking care of her needs. Suddenly a face came to Kanaya's mind. Rose's face. It was like having a spell broken. She was filled with a sudden need to escape.This wasn't what she wanted. Her affections are for Rose and Rose alone, she said it herself.

"Vriska...stop."

"No." The look in Vriska's eye scared her, like a predator ready to devour it's prey. "I have you for myself now and I won't let anything change that. I'll let that bitch know...I'll let everyone know, you are property of Vriska Serket now!"

She closed her eyes, trying to focus on Rose's face as she felt Vriska kissing and licking her neck. She almost screamed when Vriska bit her neck. After years and years of reading vampire novels and fantasizing about it her wish finally came true, but not in the way she had wanted. Though Vriska truly felt affection for her and demonstrated it by realizing a fantasy which she never spoke of but was 'written all over her face' there was one key element missing. She didn't want it. Not from her. But then why did it feel so good? Her body betrayed her and when vriska bit her for the fourth time she allowed a moan to escape her lips. Aparently that was all that vriska wanted, for as soon as that little sign of superficial joy escaped, Vriska stopped, released her and rested her head on her chest.

"I love you, Kanaya Maryam. I love you and this is where you belong. With me."

A mix of emotions battled within Kanaya, but among them one was very clear, it stood out. It was anger. It was small, but very noticeable and distinguished from the rest of chaotic feelings. She didn't want to hurt Vriska, though she had a bad reputation Kanaya saw good in her. It pained her to have to break the heart of a friend so dear to her. But she had to do it.

"...I need to go, Vriska"

"No. You're already where you need to be."

"Get off me, Vriska."

"No."

Kanaya gathered all her strength and pushed Vriska off her, causing her friend to fall on the floor and hit her head. She ran straight to the door and continued running as fast as she could to her car. She boarded her vehicle, turned it on and drove away. She saw Vriska running after her through the rear-view mirror. She made a turn and stepped on it. She kept driving for ten minutes, only focusing in driving as far away as possible. She eventually pulled over, turned the car off and rested her forehead on the steering wheel.

The anger was gone, as if it were never there. Now the emotion that stood out among the chaotic mass of confused feelings was regret. Regret for hurting her friend. Regret for rejecting her. Regret for leaving her. Her neck was still sore from the bites, did she do the right thing by stopping Vriska or did she want more? She new she had feelings for Rose, she knew! Those feelings were always as clear as the day, but what about Vriska? Was she regretful just because she didn't want to break her friend's heart or because she had feelings for her too? Why is this so confusing? Why now? Why with her?

8:00 p.m.

Rose was waiting.


	6. The Way You Look Tonight

The scarf made her look terrible. At least that's how she saw it. When she acquired that scarf she thought it looked lovely, but together with Porrim's dress, it seemed like an anomaly, but it was a necessary anomaly. She had forgotten that scarf inside her vehicle due to an unusual case of negligence with her own attire, something that proved to be for the best, for now the scarf was the only thing Kanaya had in hand that could cover her neck, and the bruises that now marked her skin. She had gone too far to turn back now. Rose was waiting for her and she would be there, regardless of the whirlwind of confused emotions that now seemed to try and rip her heart apart. 

She adjusted the rear-view mirror and there they were, the marks that Vriska had made on her skin to show Rose that she was already someone else's 'property'. She claimed to love Kanaya, but how could she say that while also claiming that Kanaya was her 'property', not a person to be cherished, but a thing to be owned? No. Kanaya was not something to be owned, she wouldn't let Vriska put a leash on her and play with her head or her heart. She covered her neck with the scarf, making sure it would stay just right so the marks wouldn't be visible. Terrible, it didn't work with the dress at all, but should have to do. Kanaya could show Rose that she had a better sense of style later, she already waited enough.

It took longer than she wanted it to, but she finally made it to Rose's house. Rose exited by the front door as soon as Kanaya arrived, probably by recognizing the sound of Kanaya's car. The brunette stepped out of the car, walked to the other side and opened the door to the passanger seat.

The beating of her heart became stronger and stronger as Rose approached. The pale blonde greated her with a smile and a kiss on the cheek. Kanaya’s lips responded the same way they had back at the bookstore, contorting themselves in a goofy smile, it lasted for an instant and Kanaya would like to believe that Rose didn’t notice it. How embarrassing.

“So, what did you plan for us tonight?” Rose asked, ending a short period of silence. Kanaya had been driving in silence, not informing her date where they were going and not making eye contact after starting the car. She looked somewhat tense and Rose couldn’t decide if she wanted to ease it or play with it.

“Oh. Right, I didn’t tell you, pardon me. I made reservations at a most charming restaurant by the lake. I hope-I mean, I’m sure you’ll find it pleasing”. With a little help from Porrim, but she left that detail out. Her failed (or was it sabotaged?) attempt at making a move at the restaurant the other night had given a blow in her savings that she would take some time to recover from. The Light Between Space, where they were heading, wasn’t as expensive, but Kanaya still had to borrow some money from her sister in order to afford it.

“Having dinner by the lake. Most splendid idea, Kanaya.” Rose said, with a tone she just loved to use. It didn’t make it clear if she was being honest or sarcastic and the expressing on Kanaya’s face as she was driving made it obvious that she was trying to figure out which one it was. Rose thought that she would definitely be sent straight to hell for that, but Kanaya’s confused expression was so adorable that it made it worth it.

“You look beautiful tonight.” Rose said after concluding that Kanaya wouldn’t speak. She could see that Kanaya was calming down, but before her date could say anything she added “That dress looks great with that scarf.” There was that ambiguous tone again and the little calmness that Kanaya had gained from that compliment disappeared just like that. She was just so adorable. Rose hoped she wasn’t being too mean, or at least not too mean for the first date.

“Thanks. You look most lovely as well,” said Kanaya, her voice carrying an unmistakable honesty. Rose looked lovely in that black dress, which wasn’t anywhere near as revealing as the one Porrim gave to Kanaya, her nails were painted purple and her eyes had shadows of the same color.

“Are we going the right way?” asked the pale woman after her date left her eyes wandering over her body for a moment, causing Kanaya to look at her with startled eyes and making her look back to the road.

“Yes, definitely.” Responded Kanaya as she turned her attention back to the road. She wasn’t sure just how things were going. Was Rose irritated? How could she be, the date had barely started. Wait, does it start when you pick your date up or when you arrive at the place you want the date to happen at? Is that even important? Kanaya sighed, missing how it felt like to have her head in order.

The Light Between Space didn’t look as fancy as the restaurant they had been the night before, but Rose seemed to find the place lovely. At least Kanaya hoped so, she was having a hard time telling if Rose was being honest or sarcastic. Was that a bad sign? Was that the ‘lack of chemistry’ people talk about? No, of course not. That’s just Kanaya being nervous. Right?

Their table gave them a good view of the lake and the tables near them were empty, giving them a sense of privacy. Things would go right this time, Kanaya reassured herself. They had nice food, a nice romantic view of the lake, they were alone in that part of the restaurant and there was no Vriska to sabotage anything. Remembering her friend, however, reminded Kanaya of the marks with the shape of Vriska’s teeth on her neck and Kanaya quickly ran her hand over the scarf to see if it was still covering the marks. Well, at least she thought they were still friends. Though Vriska made it clear that ‘friends’ wasn’t enough , but Kanaya still wanted them to be friends. But after tonight, wouldn’t it be awkward? Could she just invite Vriska to another movie night and off handedly mention ‘the night you kissed me by force and viciously bit my neck’ and then laugh about it?

“A penny for your thoughts?” said Rose, with those seductive eyes and beautiful smile.

“Sorry. I was just thinking how to start a conversation. I must say, I’m feeling a bit nervous, because I really like you and I want to cause a good impression. Although we already know each other for some time now, and the fact that you agreed to go out with me after that should be a sign that I have indeed made a good impression already, so I should be thinking about how to reinforce that good impression to prove myself a suitable lover. I can’t believe I just said that out loud. Then again I asked you out, so it is obvious I intend to be your lover, so I shouldn’t feel embarrassed by pointing that-“

“You are rambling, Kanaya” Rose interrupted, ridding her smile and replacing it with a blank expression, again with that ambiguous tone of voice. She waited for Kanaya’s reaction, which was to blush and avert her gaze, and then reverted her expression back to the way it was, smiling with seductive eyes. “But at least you know how to keep a conversation going after it starts, just don’t forget to let the other person talk too.” There was no ambiguity in her voice now, there was, however, a bit of playfulness.

“Sorry. As I said, I’m a bit nervous. I thought that coming to a familiar place with a pleasant view would aid me with maintaining a calm and collected posture, but it seems that’s not the case.”

“I like this place you picked. We didn’t have places like this in Derse.”

“You never told me about the place where you grew up. What was it like?”

“Derse? Rather gloomy, everybody there was so serious. Back in my teenage days I adopted a sort of gothic style to blend in. That phase ended quickly, but proved to be somewhat useful. Thanks to that phase I became interested in the zoologically dubious, which lead me to be interested in magic and then wizards, which finally lead me to write my own novel.”

“I’ve been meaning to read it. I’m sure it must be a delightful story.”

“It most certainly is. I’m sure a cultured woman such as yourself,” Rose tried to make it sound as flattering as possible, “would find no problem in enjoying it, unlike those simple minded reviewers.”

“Oh. Have people not been receiving your work well?”

“’Complacency of the Learned’ is selling fine, but I keep finding critic after critic saying how complicated it is, how the plot is simply impossible to understand. I believe I overestimated the mental capacities of the general public, and I made my best that it would be accessible to anyone without insulting their intelligence, but I find now that most people don’t have an actual intelligence to be insulted.”

“Well,” said Kanaya, “most of the greatest artists were unappreciated in their time. Perhaps your work is just too advanced for the minds of today?”

“Perhaps. What about you? Any big projects?”

“Oh, no. Nothing of the like of yours. I’m just content in working in the flower shop”

“You’re a terrible liar, Kanaya” Rose said, again with playfulness in her voice. “You may be happy with your current work, but you want something more.”

“My, how could I be so dense? I’ve been in the company of a mind reader all this time.” She smiled, feeling a bit proud of her mastery over sarcasm.

“One does not need to see inside your mind to know what you are thinking, my dear. Your face is easy to read.”

There was it again. That thing Vriska kept telling her over and over. Was she really this transparent? Could just anyone know what she is thinking just by glancing at her face, like Vriska and now Rose do? She ran her hand quickly over her scarf again. Yes, it was still covering the bite marks.

“I guess that given the nature of the relationship I wish to build with you, keeping secrecy over my desires is a foolish idea. I wish to be a fashion designer, my sister says she knows people who could help me with getting in the industry, but I just don’t think I’m capable enough.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself. I remember you told me you made most of your clothes, correct? Your work is beautiful, more than worth to be beheld by the world. The style of that dress is different than that of what you usually make, but it still is beautiful.”

“This isn’t one of mine. My sister made this. Heh. She said it would show that I ‘mean business’. It is redundant, now that I think of it. After all, I was the one who asked you out on a date in the first place, this alone should show that I intend to ‘mean business’ with you.”

The food they had ordered arrived and Rose waited for the waiter to leave before talking.

“Well, I must say that I’ve been looking forward to do business with you, long before I saw you in that dress. Though seeing you in it renews my wish to do so.” She said with the most seductive voice she could muster. That was a terrible double entendre, but she just couldn’t help but say it to see Kanaya’s reaction.

Kanaya looked at her with a bit of confusion in her face as her brain connected the dots. When she was done processing the information she blushed again.

“I mean, ‘business’ as in developing a relationship based on mutual affection, although such a relationship would also include the sort of ‘business’ you are implying. Not that every romantic relationship requires this sort of practice. Not that I do not wish to do it, because I do, with you…did I say that out loud?”

“Indeed you said.” Rose giggled with a wide smile.

Kanaya’s face grew redder and she started to drink the refreshment they had ordered.

“It’s foolish to hide your desires, Kanaya.” Said Rose, giggling again when her words made Kanaya choke with her drink a little. So adorable.

After finishing their food Kanaya paid for the dinner (wondering how long it would take for her to pay Porrim back)and they went back to the car. They were on their way to Rose’s house when the pale woman told her date to make a turn, diverging them from their original destination. Kanaya had lived in Prospit her entire life, but the instructions Rose gave her lead them to an area Kanaya was unfamiliar with. Guided by Rose, they eventually arrived at the top of a hill at the outskirts of the city. Kanaya turned the car off and they sat there in silence for a little while, glancing at the lights in the distance.

“Prospit is so…bright.” Said Rose, again the one to break the silence. “Every city is bright at night, even Derse, obviously. But Prospit just…seems brighter than what it should be, be it day or night.”

“I wouldn’t know. I’ve been here my whole life.”

“What’s wrong with your neck?” Rose asked, changing the subject of the conversation to something completely different. It was just to see Kanaya’s reaction, of course. Starting by saying something irrelevant to ease her date before asking her what she really wanted to know.

“There is nothing wrong with my neck,” the dark skinned woman replied.

“You would never wear that scarf with that dress, Kanaya. Nobody with a mind for fashion would.”

“It is nothing.”

“Kanaya, keeping secrecy is foolish, given the relationship you want to build with me.”

Kanaya took a deep breath and reluctantly took the scarf off her neck, showing the bruises that Vriska had left.

“Vriska.” said Rose. It wasn’t a question.

“I was on my way to pick you up, but then I passed by her house and went to inform her that she did not need to pretend to be my girlfriend anymore. Then…”

“She let you know what she really wanted.” Rose concluded. Kanaya nodded slowly, avoiding eye contact. “Do you have feelings for her too?”

“No, of course not! I feel nothi-“

“Kanaya…” Rose interrupted, placing her left hand on Kanaya’s left cheek, a blank expression on her face. 

“I like you Rose! I really do! I want to be with you! Ever since we first met!”

“But…?” said Rose, still with a blank expression.

“When I was with Vriska I…when she…when we…I DON’T KNOW!” she turned her head, grabbed the steering wheel with both hands and banged her head against it. “I DON’T KNOW! I DON’T KNOW! I thought I knew what I wanted…but now…everything is so confusing…I don’t kn-“

Rose placed a hand on Kanaya’s shoulder, slowly pushing her back against the seat. There were a few tears running down her cheeks. Rose wiped them, laced both hands on her cheeks and pulled her as she herself leaned forward, their lips meeting in a sweet kiss. Kanaya closed her eyes and returned the kiss.

When the kiss was broken Kanya opened her eyes and there she was. Vriska’s hair was back to it’s original black, and her glasses were missing, the scar where her left eye used to be in plain view without the darkened lens. She smiled at Kanaya, her hands still holding her face, and pulled her for another kiss. Kanaya closed her eyes and returned the affection. When Kanaya opened her eyes again and there was only Rose.

“Did it help?”

“Truthfully…not much.” Kanaya’s hands were on their way back to the steering wheel , but Rose took her hand into hers and pressed her forehead against Kanaya’s.

“I like you, Kanaya. I want you. Do you want me as well?”

“Yes. Yes, this much I know.”

“I won’t have Vriska have you without a fight.” With that she leaned towards Kanaya’s neck, on the opposite side of where Vriska had left her marks. She kissed Kanaya’s neck gently for a little while, feeling Kanaya’s tense body ease with her touch. When she bit her, Kanaya did no effort to suppress a moan. Rose smiled after releasing Kanaya’s flesh and moving her head a little, kissing her neck more before biting again, and again, and again, pleasuring her ears with Kanaya’s delightful moans.

She left five bruises, one more than Vriska had left. Kanaya smiled at her and leaned forward, planning to return the favor, but Rose pushed her gently.

“On the second date.” She said to the dark skinned woman, then kissed her again.

 

Kanaya examined her neck by it’s reflection in her mirror. She would have to make new scarfs to cover it up. The marks Rose left still felt a bit sore, but she didn’t mind. Porrim’s reflection appeared in the mirror and she turned around to greet her sister, eager to tell her the events of the night. Porrim had a worried expression on her face and was holding the brush they used to brush each other’s hair.

“I know it’s late, but…I need to tell you something.”

Porrim handed the brush to her little sister and sat on her bed. Kanaya sat behind her and began brushing her sisters hair. Porrim seemed tense and was breathing heavily. She didn’t say anything for several minutes and Kanaya was starting to worry. She glanced at her mirror and saw that her sister was crying. She stopped brushing and placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Porrim? Is anything-“

“I’m cheating on Aranea.”


	7. A Night With My Ex

“Thanks.” said Kanaya as she entered the Serkets’ home, her eyes scanning the area with surprise clear in her face. Since the Serket she had most contact with was Vriska, it was obvious that she would expect her home to be ridiculously messy, but thankfully Aranea was organized enough for both her and her sister. 

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

"Oh, noooooooo! In fact, Aranea was just leaving."

"I was? But it was you who...oh, that's right! I was just leaving, silly me." She picked up her car keys that were inside a little bowl on the center table and rushed to the door "Bye girls! Have fun!" and with that she closed the front door, leaving the house for Vriska and Kanaya.

A smile formed in her lips as she walked to the garage. Her heart was filled with happiness for her sister. Every relationship Vriska had been in ended up in disaster, but Aranea thought that maybe Kanaya was the one who would be able to put up with her sister. They’ve been friends for months and, aside from complaints about Vriska’s messiness, Kanaya seemed to really enjoy her company. After this long people usually distanced themselves from Vriska for either being a shitty friend or a terrible lover.

Aranea got in her car and drove away, looking at her home from the rear view mirror and wishing her sister good luck one more time. Not that Vriska needed more luck, the girl she was having feelings for (not just physical attraction, but actual feelings, which Aranea found surprising) just showed up at her door all ‘Maryamed up’, that’s as lucky as anyone can get.

She automatically made her way to the Maryams’ home. With her mothers out of town and her sister with Vriska, Porrim had the whole house for herself and it has been quite some time since they last had that house all for themselves. Now that her mother had extended the ‘No Sex Noises at Night’ to her as well, not just Vriska anymore, chez Maryam was the only place they had left for that sort of thing, since Aranea wasn’t comfortable with this kind of thing at places that aren’t used to serve as residences. 

She rang the doorbell one, two, three times. She waited a little then rang it again eight consecutive times. Apparently Porrim wasn't home either. She picked up her phone and called her girlfriend.

“Darling!” said Porrim’s voice from the phone “I haven’t seen you all day, I miss you!”

“Aw, I miss you too.” Said Aranea, blushing a little. “I presume you aren't home, I've been ringing forever.”

“Oh…sorry about that. I’m…I got something important to do tonight.”

“I see.” Said Aranea with disappointment in her voice.

“I’ll make it up to you, I swear.”

“Heh, you better!” she said playfully.

“Aranea…”

“Yes?”

“…I love you. I love you very much.”

“I love you too. Oh, I recognized the dress Kanaya is wearing.”

“You saw Kanaya?”

“Yes, she’s with Vriska right now. She’s wearing the same dress you wore on our first date.”

“She is with Vriska? Oh, right, she still had to tell Vriska that she doesn't need the whole jealousy thing anymore, since she worked up the courage to ask Rose out.”

Aranea’s eyes widened as those words entered her ear. 

“…Sorry, she did what?”

“Shocking, I know! You should have seen it, she seemed so adorable acting all brave like that. Though I had to scold her a little first. You know how she is, she isn’t used to taking action with this kind of…sorry, I need to go. See you tomorrow, Bye.”

She hang up before Aranea could say bye as well. Aranea quickly dialed her home’s number to check on things. It rang and rang but nobody answered. This was bad. If Kanaya was wearing that dress then it could only mean that she was going to her date with Rose after informing Vriska that she wasn't needed anymore. Right now when Vriska got tired of playing it slow. Aranea felt a bit guilty, maybe if she hadn't interfered and forced her sister to change her usual methods this wouldn't be happening.

She called Vriska’s cell. It took a little while, but she answered.

"Vriska, is Kanaya still there?"

"No...she left..."

"Oh crud! What did you do?!"

“…I left my mark.”

“Left your mark? What the hell does that mean?”

“Her neck felt so soft, I couldn't help but bite it all over. I guess I get why she is into vampires now.”

“This is not good, this is not good at all!”

“Shut up, this is great! There is no way she’ll go on a date with that albino freak with her neck like that. I almost wish she did, though. I’d love to see that pale bitch’s face if she saw my handy work on Kanaya’s neck. My marks of ownership.”

“She’s a person, she isn't something for you to own!”

“It’s not like that! She owned me all this time, and now I own her too. We belong to each other like it was supposed to be from the damn beginning!”

“You hardly belong to each other, since she RAN AWAY! Urgh, this is exactly what I was talking about! I told you to be tactful, I told you to be smooth, I told you-“

“FUCK YOU! She ran away because she’s confused! Because that albino bitch messed with her head! If I had done things my way since the beginning I’d be in my bed with her, not sitting on the fucking road!”

“Why are you sitting on the road? You tried to run after her car, didn't you?”

“Fuck you! Just fuck you, okay? I’m going to find her.”

“You aren't going anywhere, missy. I’m going to…URGH!” Vriska hung up on her face. Aranea sighed deeply and went back to her car. She sat on the diver’s seat and rested her head on the steering wheel. Maybe her sister’s relationships are really all doomed to end in disaster. She was about to turn her car back on when her phone rang. It was Meenah.

“Ray, Serket!”

“Meenah, I don’t fin this is the best time.”

“Hehehe, you said ‘fin’!”

“Yeah, I did…heh.”

“Why are you all alone there? Your gillfrond isn't home?”

“Yeah, she said she has some…hey, how do you know where I-“

“WRAAAAAH!” Meenah screamed loudly as she popped from the opened window of the driver’s side, making Aranea jump and scream as she was caught off guard. “HAHAHAHA! Water is the manta, Serket? ‘Tis a safe neighborhood.”

“Don’t do that again, guppy.” Aranea said, pinching her friend’s cheek as punishment for her childish prank.

“Ouch! Stop that, I’m no guppy. So, you’re all alone, huh?”

“Yeah. My gillfron- I mean, my girlfriend is busy tonight and my sister is messing her life up even more.”

“So, you are free to dive me home, right? My feet are culling me!”

“Where is your car?”

“I raybe parked it in front of a hydrant and raybe it got taken away.”

“…Right, get in.”

Meenah made her way to the passenger’s side and got in the car. Making herself comfortable by placing her feet on top of the panel.

“Thanks Serket, you’re awesalmon! Raybe on the way we can go to a Happy Burger and eat somefin. Oh, and culld you pay my burger for me? I kinda left my wallet in my car.”

Aranea sighed and smiled, amused at how Meenah hadn’t changed one bit since they first met. Though, when they met for the first time Meenah wanted her to pay for a tuna sandwich, not a burger.

“Yes, your Imperial Condensation. Would you also like a foot massage while waiting for your meal?”

“Don’t be a smartass with me, Serket. And I turtlely could use a massage, so you can apologize for being sarcraby by giving me one.” 

“I know where your feet usually are, so I’m not touching those things” 

Aranea turned her car on, moved it away from the Maryams’ house, back to the road and set the destination to the nearest Happy Burger.

“Full speed ahead, Talkfang! I got a stomach full of nothing and a mouth full of glubbing!”

“Could you not call me that?”

“Why not? You love that show!”

“I believe my sea fearing days are behind me.”

“You mean you made me wash all eight seasons of ‘Spinerette Mindfang’ and now you don’t want to talk about it? You’re such an ungrateful nerd, Serket.”

“Though I've recently became hooked up-“

“Hehehehehe, hooked up!”

“Yes, yes, don’t interrupt me. I got fond of this most delightful story about cherubs! They are this green people that live deep within-“

“Oh glub, not again. I said full speed ahead!”

Aranea slowed the car down a little bit. She was going fast enough so Meenah wouldn't try to jump out of the car so she wouldn't need to hear one of Aranea’s stories (something that had happened before, when they were dating), but slow enough to give her enough time to tell her friendly ex all about her new obsession. She made a few wrong turns to give her extra time to explain in detail the rich story of the Cherub people.

There was no line for them to make their orders, something Aranea found most unfortunate, since the time they could have spent in a line would have given her enough time to go back in her story a bit and explain better a few things about the Cherubs that she left a little vague.

“Welcome to happy Burger!” said the strangely cheerful worker, way too happy for someone working night shift at a fast food joint. “What would you like to eat?”

“Anyfin that induces anemonesia will do.”

“Anemo…what?”

“Amnesia, Coddamnit! I want to forget everyfin she made me go through!” she pulled the woman behind the counter by her collar and pointed at Aranea “She made me listen aboat giant snakes having sex in space! Snake! Sex! In! Space! Make that go aray now!”

“I’m sorry, miss, but I’m afraid nothing could erase THAT.” Her co-workers started laughing, which made Aranea look at them with an angry expression, making them shut up. She and Meenah ordered a couple of burgers and she could hear some giggling as they were walking towards an empty table.

“You could have explained it better, you know.”

“I tunano how to make space snake sex sound less disturbing, Serket. If it makes you eel any betta, I don’t judge you by water kind of porn you like.”

“It’s not porn, it’s an important mating ritual that has great consequences to an entire universe!” She sighed and rested her head on her left hand. “No one appreciates good stories anymore.”

Now that her stomach was satisfied after eating one and a half ‘big happy cheeseburgers’ (she ate half of Aranea’s when she got distracted with another story), Meenah skipped to Aranea’s car as her friend followed her, walking.

“Water about we hit the arcade next? You nerds like arcades, right?”

“Yes, meenah. We nerds loooooooove arcades. It’s like a second home for us.”

“On seacond thought, naaaaah. Let’s go some place eelse. I already got all the nerd I need right here!”

She slapped Aranea’s butt, causing her friend to jump as she felt the surprise attack to her lower regions. She gave Meenah a serious look and her friend raised her hands in a gesture of ‘okay, okay, sorry’.

Back in the car, Meenah placed her feet on top of the panel again, leaned the passenger seat backwards a bit more for more comfort and rested her hands behind her head.

“Lemme sea…what about we go to…”

“Your house? Wasn't there where you wanted to go in the first place?”

“Naaah, that was when I didn't have a ride and my feet where hurting. I know, let’s go to the mall!”

“You don’t have any money! I already paid for your burger, I’m not paying anything else for you.”

“Oh, I’m surf I can get a five fingers discount.”

“I’m not taking you to the mall so you can shop lift.”

“Aaaaw, Serket! What happened to the adventurous nerd I used to date? Now you’re just…nerd.”

“I’m taking you to your home, Meenah.”

“Glubbing glubs glub!” Meenah crossed her arms and pouted as Aranea turned the car on.

They remained in silence as they took the quickest route to Meenah’s house. Half way there, Aranea stopped the car right before a turn.

“Water about bowling?” proposed the Serket gal, “it’s been a long time since we went bowling together.”

“…only because you started it with ‘water’.”

Aranea smiled and made the turn, changing the destination to the bowling alley. Meenah stopped pouting and started bragging about her improved bowling skills, and how a nerd like Aranea had no chance against a badass ‘motherglubber’ like her. They were three traffic lights away from the bowling alley when Aranea saw a motorbike that seemed familiar. It was Vriska’s bike, and Vriska had a dark skinned woman with her on top of it, stopping at the red light.

Aranea stopped alongside her sister’s bike and got out of the car.

“So there you are!” screamed Aranea, dramatically pointing her index finger at her sister.

“Oh fuck, not now!” Vriska removed her helmet and got off the bike, pushing her big sister back to her car. “You didn’t see me! You never saw me! You never knew me! Get back in your car and leave me the fuck alone, goddamnit!”

“You are unbelievable! You’re actually looking for Kanaya? And who’s that?” she gestured at the dark skinned woman still on the bike.

“Just some meddling meddlepants, ignore her.”

“Hey!” the woman on the bike took her helmet off, revealing a mess of long straight black hair. “I have a name and it’s Jade!”

“Kanaya’s friend?” Aranea facepalmed herself, letting out a groan of frustration. “please tell me you aren’t trying to make Kanaya jealous.”

“Hell no!” responded Vriska “I don’t need this kind of bullshit!”

“I’m here to stop her from looking for Kanaya!” said Jade, with a serious voice, the voice of someone on a mission.

“Great job so far, guppy.” said Meenah, still in the car with her feet on the panel. “I don’t even fink you tried at all!”

“S-shut up, fuckass!” Jade got off the bike, closed her hand into a fist and hit Vriska’s head softly with her knuckles. “Do you have any idea how hard it is to get an idea inside her thick skull?”

“I know it’s easy to get your hand inside her pants. Have you tried that?” said Meenah, making an obscene gesture with her left hand.

“Just fuck you all!” Screamed Vriska.

“And the word of the day, ladies and ladies” said Jade, with a playful voice, “Is ‘fuck’. Thanks for playing ‘How Diverse Is Vriska’s Vocabulary’!”

Vriska went back to her bike, being beat to it by Jade, leaving enough space for the owner of the bike to hop on. They put their helmets back on and Vriska drove them away. Aranea watched her sister until she disappeared after making a turn then she went back to the car.

“Sooooo…” said Meenah. “Does Original-Flavor-Serket want to go after Serket-the-Sequel or can we go bowling now?”

“You know what? Screw her! She wants to fuck up the only relationship that could have worked for her? Fine, I don’t care. Let’s go bowling.”

“Alright! Bowling! Bowling! WHOOOO!”

Meenah jumped, screaming ‘aw yiss’ as her ball successfully knocked all the pins at once, getting the attention of the other people in the bowling alley. Not because of her skill, but because of her constant screaming whenever she hit anything.

“Hahaha! You better bring out your ‘A’ game now, Serket, cause I’m turtlely kicking your bass!...Aranea?”

Aranea sighed, unenthusiastically, grabbing one ball and then putting it back where it was.

“…I don’t feel like playing anymore.”

“Come on, Serket. How your sis screws up her life is none of your business. Just forget about it.”

“I want to go home now, Meenah.”

“Okay, can you just drop me at my place?”

“Actually…could you sleep at my place tonight?”

“…sure.”

“Don’t you mean ‘surf’?”

“Oh coddamnit!”

Meenah made herself comfortable on one couch as Aranea laid on the other. The opening credits of ‘Spinerette Mindfang’ showing on the living room’s TV, the DVD case for the first season of the show open on top of the coffee table.

“Know water? When you get past the goofy pirate costume, she’s kinda hot!”

“That’s not the point of the show, Meenah…but yeah, she is.”

Aranea felt her phone vibrating. It was a message from Porrim. ‘I have so+mething impo+rtant to+ tell yo+u. See yo+u to+mo+rro+w.’. ‘Okay. Can you give me a hint?’ she texted back, but there was no response. On the screen, the daring pirate Mindfang embraced her jade eyed female lover, giving her a passionate kiss.


	8. Enough to Go Around

It got her completely by surprise. Usually Porrim would wait at the very least half an hour for her to arrive, but there she was, right on time for the first time in one year. She could have picked better clothes however, but Porrim thinks there are limits even for miracles. She feels a little bad for thinking this way. After all, they've been together for a whole year now, this was a special occasion and seeing her showing that she is taking this seriously by arriving on time as a 'miracle' was just mean on Porrim's part. Porrim sneaked up behind her and covered her eyes.

"Three guesses as to who it is". Said Porrim, playfully.

"Oh gee, that sure is a tough one. Let's see...Betty Crocker?"

"Heh, not even close. You still ha-"

Latula turned around, grabbing Porrim by the waist and pulling her girlfriend's body against her own, giving her a kiss. The kiss lingered on for a little while and Porrim broke it when she felt that Latula had played with her piercing enough. She could feel the passers-by staring at them, but she did her best to ignore that feeling.

"That game is boring, Marrygamz"

"And here I thought you'd humor me, specially today."

"There are better ways to humor you."

There was a pause as Porrim thought of a good innuendo to reply with, but she saw that the line to the ticket both was getting longer way to fast, so she dropped the conversation and took her girlfriend by the hand, taking her to the growing line. This was the amusement park where they went to on their first date and they both thought it would be appropriate to go there again for their one year anniversary. They had waited in the line for three minutes when Latula realized she forgot her wallet in her car.

"I can pay for you, you know. It's no big deal."

"Oh Nonononono. I'm not gonna sponge ma girl on our anniversary. I'll be back before ya know it."

And with that, Latula sprinted to the parking lot. Porrim chuckled as she saw her girlfriend running to her car like a maniac. The way she ran was somewhat goofy. Porrim sometimes jokes about Latula forgetting how to walk properly due to using mainly her skateboard to move her body from place to place. Her gaze was averted from her girlfriend to her pocket as her cellphone rang inside it. A familiar feeling spread thought her heart as she picked her phone to see who was calling. This cold and painful feeling was the good and old feeling of guilt. It was Aranea, her girlfriend, calling.

***********************************

Aranea took a deep breath as she left the public aquarium. She felt as if a heavy weigh was lifted from her shoulders. or at least this is what she was telling herself. It went a lot smoother and quicker than she had expected. In her books and TV shows break ups were more often than not dramatic, filled with crying and some times screaming. She had expected Meenah to get angry and make a scene, but she was calm and collected the whole time, she was the one to drop the 'let's still be friends' line and it all caught Aranea by surprise. She wasn't exactly sure how to respond to Meenah's calm agreement that they shouldn't be a couple anymore and she still wasn't sure if she responded correctly. Did she do good by maintaining her cool or should she had shown more emotion? Should she had been the one to make a scene? No, the one being broken up with is always the one to make a scene, all of her novels agreed on that.

She became distracted as her mind carefully processed the innovative notion that relationships in real life don't necessarily follow the parameters commonly used in fictional relationships. Her legs were moving on their own and she did not notice when she passed by her car, and she didn't notice when she left the parking lot and stepped onto the road. Her focus in figuring out just how well her break up with Meenah by the standards of her novels was only broken when she heard the horn of the car that was moving in her direction.

Porrim groaned to demonstrate her frustration at Damara, her laughter coming loud and clear from the phone, the only clear thing Porrim heard from her during the whole conversation.

"I know that you can speak English and you know my Japanese is bad, so why can't you just talk to me in a language we both understand?"

 Damara showed no sign of being compliant. Still speaking in her mother tongue, using the same tone of voice Porrim usually used while flirting, but her occasional giggle fits indicated that whatever were the sweet nothings she was trying to whisper into Porrim's ear with the aid of long range communication technology, they probably weren't anything serious.

"You want to...what? Look, this was really cute in the beginning, but now I ask you to not call me unless you want to have a coherent conversation like an adult, am I clear?"

All she got as a response was another of Damara's fits of laughter. She hung up and sighed deeply , returning her attention to the road in time to see a pedestrian crossing the road right in front of her. Porrim hit the horn and the breaks at the same time and her car began to slide, leaving black marks on the road, coming to a full stop only a few centimeters away from the woman crossing the road. She just stood there, looking at Porrim like a scared deer.She opened the door and stepped out of the car, with genuine worry clear in her face.

"Miss? Are you okay?"

Aranea just just stood there for a moment then her lower lip began to tremble and tears were about to fall from her eyes.

"I...I...I don't know."

Aranea began to cry, but didn't move an inch. Porrim reluctantly walked to her and awkwardly placed her arms around the stranger she almost ran over and was now crying in front of her car, patting her on the back gently.

"Hmmmm...there there? Everything is...okay now?"

Porrim looked around, there was no one else in sight. The woman was alone, and since Porrim almost ran her over she thought she least she could do was to offer her a shoulder to cry on.

***********************************

“Darling!” said Porrim “I haven’t seen you all day, I miss you!”

“Aw, I miss you too.” Said Aranea's voice through the phone. “I presume you aren't home, I've been ringing forever.”

“Oh…sorry about that. I’m…I got something important to do tonight.”

“I see.” Said Aranea with disappointment in her voice.

“I’ll make it up to you, I swear.”

“Heh, you better!” she said playfully.

“Aranea…”

“Yes?”

“…I love you. I love you very much.”

“I love you too. Oh, I recognized the dress Kanaya is wearing.”

“You saw Kanaya?”

“Yes, she’s with Vriska right now. She’s wearing the same dress you wore on our first date.”

“She is with Vriska? Oh, right, she still had to tell Vriska that she doesn't need the whole jealousy thing anymore, since she worked up the courage to ask Rose out.”

There was a short moment of silence and when Aranea spoke there was the most genuine surprise in her voice.

“…Sorry, she did what?”

“Shocking, I know! You should have seen it, she seemed so adorable acting all brave like that. Though I had to scold her a little first. You know how she is, she isn't used to taking action with this kind of-" She saw Latula sprinting back, waiving her wallet in the air, a big smile in her lips due to the astounding accomplishment of finding her wallet on the driver's seat. "…sorry, I need to go. See you tomorrow, Bye.”

"I got it, I got it!" said Latula as she returned to her place in line beside Porrim, as her girlfriend hung up her phone and put it back in her pocket. "Who was that?"

"It was just Kanaya. She finally got the guts to ask the woman she has been following around on a date and was asking for a last minute advice."

"Passing the secrets of the Maryam Seduction Techniques to the next generation? That's pretty rad of you. Wish I had someone to carry over my legacy."

"Don't say it like that. I'm only three years older than her. You make it sound like I'm ancient."

"Oopz, sorry." She wrapped her arms around Porrim's waist from behind and rested her chin on Porrim's shoulder. "Say, when will I get to meet your family?"

"The Maryam women are often very busy with something or other."

"For realz? A whole year?"

"It's just bad timing, dear. We...what about next Saturday?"

"Seriously? Will I finally meet your mysterious family? Alright, our relationship is leveling up!"

***********************************

The music was loud and the house was a mess. The guests seemed to go out of their way to show complete disregard for the state of the house they were in, throwing objects around at random, leaving half eaten food on the floor and couches, leaving pieces of clothing everywhere, the works. The person throwing the party, however, didn't seem to care at all. Porrim amused herself by imagining Damara cleaning the whole place in the morning, although she knew that her friend would never lift a finger to clean anything ever. Wait, is 'friend' the correct word here? Porrim wasn't quite sure.

She made her way to Damara, casually dodging the people running around aimlessly and the cans of beer being tossed around for no reason other than to make a mess. When she finally reached Damara she gave her the most 'natural' looking smile she could make and handed her present to her 'friend'.

"Happy birthday!" she said loudly, so Damara would hear over the loud music.

Damara smiled as Porrim stood there, holding a box wrapped in a green bow, not ceasing her dancing for one second.

  She looked at the present with confusion, took it from Porrim's hands and tossed it behind her, landing inside a trashcan a man in a toga was balancing over his head for reasons Porrim hoped to never find out. Damara pulled Porrim's body against her own, placing her hands on Porrim's hips and looking straight into her eyes, moving their bodies at the rhythim of the music, smiling widely as she insisted in speaking in a tongue she knew Porrim couldn't understand, The same tone of voice Porrim herself used while flirting, but with none of the giggle fits this time.

"Okay...whatever you say...I think I'll go get something to drink."

Porrim was making her way to the kitchen, making sure to avoid anyone holding drinks of their own so they would spill it 'accidentally' on her clothes. The music came to a sudden stop and the lights were turned off. A young man wearing a helmet held two flashlights and pointed them at the end of the staircase where a young woman holding a skateboard was striking a pose.

"Everybody check this out! Don't blink or you'll miss it!"

The young woman on the second floor took some steps back, getting out of view as the young man with the helmet immitated the sound of drums with his mouth. The woman came back, jumping on the banister of the staircase and grinding down on it with her skateboard. When she go to the end her body made a little trip in the air, which had an unfortunate trajectory, ending on Damara's coffee table. The table made of glass shattered as Latula's body landed on it. Some guy took the opportunity to take the skateboard that was on the floor and made a dash for the door, never to be seen again.

Porrim ran to the young woman collapsed on a small field of broken glass shards

"Oh my god! Are you okay? Did you break anything?"

"You know what would be rad?" said Latula, smiling. "If you could call 911." and with that said, she fainted.

***********************************

"Must we really go on that ride?" said Porrim, frowning at the idea.

"Come on, it'll be fun!"

"I'm afraid ghost trains lose their appeal after the first time you've been to one."

Latula began delivering her fake laughter, placing both hands on her stomach and leaning backwards, making Porrim aware of the unintentional joke she just made. Porrim rolled her eyes and took her girlfriend's hand in hers, taking her to the line for the line for the ghost train ride. In front of them a young girl was wearing a shirt with the face of the actress who plays the pirate Mindfang in the front and the show's logo on the back, she was telling another girl about the show and at the same time providing excuses for the atrocious actions committed by the 'anti-hero' protagonist which made the show so controversial.

The whole conversation (if one person talking and another pretending to listen can be called that) sounded very familiar to Porrim. The girl's arguments sounded a lot like Aranea's. No, they were Aranea's arguments, she knew because she once had to listen to this same rationalization before. Most likely the girl was just repeating what Aranea wrote on her blog. Porrim had seen it, but had read very little of it. Pages upon pages of in depth analysis of every single little thing about the show.

Although Porrim never quite understood the appeal of the show, she's glad that it exists. In a way, her relatiohsip with Aranea began because of that show.

***********************************

"...And that's why Mindfang had to burn down the entire village. Thousands of people died, sure, but she really had no other option." explained Aranea as she adjusted the fancy hat on her head. The hat was the part of her cosplay she was the most proud of.

"I'm sorry, but that hardly seems enough reason to kill so many innocents" Porrim replied, "Are you sure you aren't trying a bit too hard to justify every bad thing she does?"

"I'm trying just hard enough, thank you very much. There was an entire web of events that led to that moment, there was too many things at stake, if she hadn't burned the whole place down things would have been much worse for everybody from that point onward."

"Still, glorifying a person who isn't at all reluctant in taking thousands of lives just for a miserable-"

"Excuse me." said a young girl holding a camera, interrupting Porrim in the middle of her rant. "Can I take a picture of you two?"

Another picture. It hadn't been ten minutes since they managed to get in and they had to stop and pose for photos five times already. Porrim was glad that the cosplay she worked so hard to make was being appreciated by so many, but she wanted to at least take a look at one booth before stopping to pose again. her cosplay consisted on a elaborated green and black dress, an exact copy of the dress worn by Dolorosa, Mindfang's love interest (and by far the only character in the show to have anything resembling actual morals), matching with Aranea's Mindfang cosplay.

Like in the five times before, more and more people gathered around them as they posed. And as in the five times before, Aranea pulled Porrim close to her, embracing her and getting their faces just close enough that it would seem like they were kissing. They held this position until everybody who gathered around them had already left, satisfied by having a picture of their 'OTP' immortalized in their digital devices. As if the love scenes of the actual shows weren't enough.

Whenever Aranea got close to Porrim she could smell her sweet perfume. It was one of the things that made posing tolerable for all the hours they spent at Prospitcon. Every now and again they would comply to people's requests for pictures. Over the course of the day they came up with many different poses, but they always ended each session with the kissing pose. For one of two minutes their bodies were pressed against each other and they would place their faces just close enough that it would create the illusion that the were kissing, but there was a little space between their lips. For one or two minutes Porrim would inhale that sweet perfume and stare at those cobalt eyes as they stared back at hers.

"Excuse me..."

"Pictures?"

"If it's okay with you two"

Nobody else came this time. Instead of the usual crowd of eager shippers, there was only that one woman this time. They did the full routine, giving her the full set of poses they came up with during that day. The full set, ending as always with the kissing pose. Aranea pulled Porrim against her and smiled as she moved her face closer to Porrim's. Usually she would stop just a few millimeters away from Porrim's lips, usually they would just pretend to be kissing, usually they would do nothing but smell each other's perfume and stare at each other's eyes. This time, however, they lips touched. Their eyes widened as that single touch, which lasted nothing longer than a second, sent a warm feeling thought their bodies.

Aranea distanced her face from Porrim's and opened her mouth to say 'sorry', but Porrim placed one hand behind her head and gently pulled Aranea close again. No posing, no pretending. This kiss lasted longer than all of their fake kisses of that day combined and when Porrim released Aranea the woman was already gone. It was just the two of them in that part of the building. They looked at each other and smiled as their faces became red. Porrim ran her hand through her friend's hair (was 'friend' still the right word in this case?), putting her hair behind her ear and caressing her cheek softly.

"You are a mean pirate, Mindfang. But I'm afraid I can't deny your charms."

"Dolorosa would never say that."

"...Of course."

***********************************

Latula stuck her tongue out comically, closing one eye to better aim with the other. She started spinning her arm and tossed the ball at the aluminium bottles arranged in the form of a pyramid. The formation was broken as the ball collided with the bottles, sending each in a different direction.

"ALRIGHT! Who's the gurl? I'm the gurl! Awyeah!"

"Those bottles never saw it coming, dear."

Due to her magnificent ability to obliterate bottle formations with baseballs, the guy in the stand presented Latula with the ultimate prize: a huge teddy bear holding a heart. Latula got on one knee and offered the bear to her girlfriend, who promptly accepted the meaningful and unique gift.

"What should we do next, darling?"

"Lemme think here real quick...Aha! Rollercoaster!"

"I don't know. I don't trust those things."

"Comme on Marrygamz, It's the most rad ride in this place!"

"Well, if you put it like that, how can I refuse?"

***********************************

"Ah! There she iz!" Latula smiled brightly as Porrim entered the room, carrying bags full of 'essentials' "my favorite nurse haz arrived!"

"Not so loud." Porrim closed the door and sat on the chair beside Latula's bed. "The actual nurses might get jealous. How is your leg?"

"Let's have a quick look see" Latula did her best to make the most serious expression she was capable of as she rested her chin on her fist, looking at her left leg "my professional opinion is that it is still covered in plaster. This can mean two thingz: either my leg isn't completely healed yet or I'm a comic super villain now. Plaster Woman! Can't wait to rob bankz with my rad plaster powerz, awyeah!"

"What about a movie before you embark in a life of crime?" Porrim took her laptop and a DVD from one of the bags "today's movie is Problem Sleuth 2." She turned the laptop on and handed it to Latula so she could get the 'essentials' from the other bag. "and for the high standards of your stomach I brought a Big Smile Happy Burger with Happy Fries, which I bought with love and care from a doubtlessly highly sanitary fast food joint."

"Aw gee. You're the best, Popo Marrygamz."

"That nickname..."

"Something wrong with it?"

"It's just so...awful. Can't you just call me by my name? Or at least a better nickname?"

"Okay then...hmmm...what about...Pornstar? Ya know, because it has the same first syllable as your name and-"

"On a second thought, Marrygamz is just quaint."

They weren't even done with the first 1/4 of the movie when Latula finished eating the high quality food that Porrim had brought her. No matter how many times she got hospitalized, she just couldn't get used to hospital food. If it weren't for Porrim bringing semi-descent food from the world outside the hospital walls she would starve, whither and die. Or so she tells Porrim.

"That was a ridiculous thing you tried to do."

"Yeah, it waz. Wait...which ridiculouz thing you are talking about? I need specificz, Marrygamz. Specificz."

"Trying to jump over seven cars. On a skateboard. You are lucky the only thing you broke was one leg."

"Oh, right. THAT. It just seemed like such a rad idea on paper."

"Why do you do that?"

"Marrygamz, when you're az rad az me you have to face some challangez for-"

"You know that's not what I'm talking about. It's this air-headed persona of yours. I know you're smarter than that."

"Before you say I'm an air-head, let me explain you a thing."

"...So?"

"So what?"

"What is this thing you want to explain to me?"

"Oh, it'z nothing. That waz the whole joke."

"Urgh, that's what I'm talking about. Why do you pretend to be so dumb? Why act like that? Since I met you this act you try to pull does nothing but put you in this place!"

Latula laid back on her bed and stared at the ceiling. For the first time since they met, Porrim thought that she actually looked thoughtful, instead of pretending to pretend to look so.

"To be honest...I don't even know anymore. I've been acting like that for so long..."

"You don't need to be dumb to be rad, Latula."

"I know. I just...I think at some point in time I thought it would be fitting, ya know? The air-head who is too dumb not to try anything at least once? I guess that was my reasoning back then. Does that even make sense?"

"I think you're too old to keep acting like that"

"Guess you might be right."

"You know I'm right. Hehe."

"What's funny?"

"Oh, it's nothing. Latula...just please take better care of yourself. I really like spending time with you, but I rather spend time with you somewhere else."

"And where would that be?"

"...Your house...your room...maybe..."

***********************************

Porrim finished her cotton candy and opened the door of the back seat of her car to put the bear there. Once Mr. Bear was appropriately accommodated in his private transport, Porrim closed the door and opened the trunk to retrieve a skateboard covered in present paper.

"Thanks for the wonderful night, Latula. Happy Anniversary."

"Aw gee, Marrygamz. What could that possibly be?" Latula unwrapped her present, gasping as the skateboard covered in present paper was revealed to be a skateboard. "What a plot twist! I would never have guessed! Thank you Mar...OH! MY! GOD!"

At a first glance it looked like an ordinary skateboard, but it wasn't. It was HER skateboard. The one she took to Damara's birthday party little more than one year ago and got unceremoniously stolen after she landed on the coffee table. It was still in good condition, as if it hadn't been used since that night. it was just like it was that night, except for one little change. A better inspection of the deck revealed a name. An autograph. The deck of her stolen skateboard came back bearing the signature of the famous skater known as 'Redglare', Latula's idol.

"I knew you'd appreciate it."

"But...when...how..."

"I'm a woman of means, my dear." said Porrim, flipping her hair.

Latula hugged her girlfriend tight, showering he with kisses all over her face and ending it with one big kiss on her lips. She kept saying 'thank you' over and over as she hugged Porrim tighter and tighter. Porrim recommended her to go see it if was still in good condition, and so she did. Porrim watched as her girlfriend rode around the parking lot, doing simple tricks to test the condition of her present.

As Latula distanced herself, Porrim was left alone with her thoughts. The ever familiar feeling of guilt coming back from the dark corners of her mind. For a whole year this feeling grew and grew, torturing her slowly. It was well past time she told Latula and Aranea the truth, but what will they think of her when she does? She loves both of them very much. The thought of being left by one of them is agonizing by itself, she thinks she won't be able to handle being left by both of them. There is a part of her, however, that still believes they might be okay with it, that they might accept it and that the three of them can be happy together. It may be a fool's hope, but it is what keeps her together. Next Saturday, that's when she'll introduce Latula to her family...and to Aranea. Then...well...then she'll have to wait and see how things go.

"Vriska, wait!"

Did someone say 'Vriska'? What could she be doing here? That voice was familiar as well, it was the friendly voice of Jade, Kanaya's friend from work.

"HOWDAREYOUDOTHISTOMYSISTER?!"

This was definitely Vriska's voice, and she was close. Very close. Porrim turned around just in time to see Vriska's fist closing onto her face. The force of the punch sent Porrim to the ground. The world was spinning and when she looked back at her aggressor Vriska's face was red with anger, breathing heavily and some veins were popping out of her forehead. Porrim had thought many things of Aranea's little sister. She thought she was a nuisance, she thought she was a load, she thought she was a pest. Now, for the first time she thought that Vriska was dangerous, and she was scared.

"I'LLTEARYOUAPARTYOUBITCH!"


	9. My Way and The Highway

“How could you do something like that?!”

 Vriska slammed the door of her bedroom as hard as she could, locking it in a hurry. The key broke as she was locking the passage to her private domain, making her both a ruler and a prisoner in the minuscule part of the planet that belonged to her and her alone. Taking refuge in her room was basically futile, as she could still listen to Aranea as if her sister was in the room with her, but she hoped that the action of running to her room and slamming the door would be enough to get her sister to understand that she really didn’t want to talk. It wasn’t.

  “Do you have any idea of how embarrassed I was?!”

 “I only did that to make you shut up! You kept telling me to meet your new girlfriend and her family, and I did! So now do me a favor and fuck the hell off!”

 “Wait a minute, did you…I went through that nightmare because…”

 Aranea walked back and forward in front of the door of Vriska’s room, gesturing all over the place as she tried to pick the right words to properly display her anger and frustration towards her little sister. A thought came across her mind: ‘what would Mindfang do?’ a thought that generally occurred to her during frustrating situations. Mindfang wouldn’t lose her cool, she would remain composed and in control. Aranea took a deep breath and attempted to talk as calmly as she could.

 “When I told you that I meant for us to arrange some time for you to meet them, I meant for you to let me introduce you to them properly. What I did not mean was for you to BREAK INTO THEIR HOME!!!!!!!!”

 She took a few more deep breaths. Mindfang wouldn’t have screamed like that. Then again, Mindfang never had Vriska as her sister.

 “So what if I did that? Her mothers were cool with that, your girlfriend was cool with that and so was Kanaya.”

 “THEY WEREN’T…they weren’t ‘cool with that’, they were just being nice. Besides, Kanaya threw half of her room on your head! And you…you…you didn’t even…”

 More deep breaths. This wasn’t how her beloved sea queen would handle the situation. Aranea closed her eyes and visualized herself wearing Mindfang’s (ridiculously historically inaccurate) clothes, at the helm of her ship, Vriska on deck wearing the rags that Mindfang’s subordinates wore in her beloved TV show.

 “I did all the apologizing when it was you who should have shown penitence. I am feeling rather magnanimous today, so I shall allow your misbehavior to pass unpunished this time. Mind you that I won’t be so kind should you bring me such humiliation again.”

 “Wha? Sorry, what was that? There is noise coming out of your mouth, but all I hear is blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.”

 “You are a grown woman, Vriska. Would it kill you to act as such?”

 “Would it kill you to stop being such a pain in the ass? I’m sure Porrim won’t stop spreading her legs for you just because her sister found me in her bed, which is a huge privilege, mind you.”

 “This is not about sex. Porrim is very important to me and you would be doing me a great favor if you stay away from her and her family from this point onwards.”

  “ Ooooooooh meet my girlfriend, Vriska! Stay away from my girlfriend, Vriska! Jee, funny how things turn out, right?”

 There was no reply. Vriska raised her hands in the air to praise the universe for getting rid of Aranea for her, and not a moment too soon. She walked towards her mirror and looked at the Band-Aid on her forehead. It was green (“It’s jade, Vriska”) with some purple (“Lavender, actually”) and blue (“That would be cobalt. I do not intend to be rude, but are you color blind by any chance?”) flowers drown on it. She smiled as she remembered Kanaya’s insistent corrections about the colors.

 Kanaya sure was cute when she wasn’t throwing stuff at her. Hell, she was cute when she was throwing stuff at her. Vriska never knew angry faces could be so adorable and scary at the same time. But Aranea doesn’t want her around Miss That’s-Not-What-The-Color-Is-Called.

 URGH! Who cares about what big sister doesn’t want anyway?

 

********

 

"Oh crud! What did you do?!" Said Aranea a few miles away, worry and frustration carried over through the phone.

“…I left my mark.”

“Left your mark? What the hell does that mean?”

“Her neck felt so soft, I couldn't help but bite it all over. I guess I get why she is into vampires now.”

“This is not good, this is not good at all!”

“Shut up, this is great! There is no way she’ll go on a date with that albino freak with her neck like that. I almost wish she did, though. I’d love to see that pale bitch’s face if she saw my handy work on Kanaya’s neck. My marks of ownership.”

“She’s a person, she isn't something for you to own!”

“It’s not like that! She owned me all this time, and now I own her too. We belong to each other like it was supposed to be from the damn beginning!”

“You hardly belong to each other, since she RAN AWAY! Urgh, this is exactly what I was talking about! I told you to be tactful, I told you to be smooth, I told you-“

“FUCK YOU! She ran away because she’s confused! Because that albino bitch messed with her head! If I had done things my way since the beginning I’d be in my bed with her, not sitting on the fucking road!”

“Why are you sitting on the road? You tried to run after her car, didn't you?”

“Fuck you! Just fuck you, okay? I’m going to find her.”

 She hung up and turned her phone off. Now was not the time to let big sister tell her what to do. Kanaya was out there, alone and confused and she had to do something. At least she finally got that off her chest. They spent some good times together, they got very close, but now Aranea’s subtlety game was over and the bridge of friendship burned. There is now only one way her relationship with Kanaya can go and no third rate albino writer and no paranoid control freak sibling would ruin this.

 She pressed the button of the remote to open the door of the garage before putting her helmet on. Her motorcycle’s engine roared in garage as it was brought back to life by the turn of a key. There wasn’t much fuel in the thank, but Vriska didn’t see it as a problem, Kanaya couldn’t have gone far. She would find her, talk to her, calm her down. The more the thought about it the more she began to regret her approach to the albino broad problem. Okay, so Kanaya freaked out, she should have seen that coming, she should have thought things through instead of acting on instinct.

 More reason to go after Kanaya, she can’t just let the love of her life disappear because of this one ridiculous mistake, right????????

 The door of the garage closed as the front tire of the Harley touched the concrete street. She made a turn in the same place Kanaya did and…well, that’s pretty much when Vriska lost her trail. There were no cars on the street and there was nothing indicating where Kanaya could have gone after that.

 Vriska kept looking around, driving aimlessly while justifying every turn she made with the thought ‘yes, this is where she went, I can feel it’. Before she knew it she ended up on the street where Kanaya worked. The place would be deserted if it weren’t for a short dark skinned woman with wavy long hair closing the flower shop.

 It took her surprisingly longer than she had expected, but Jade was glad that all the plants had been taken care of and were prepared for a good night sleep. She was more tired than usual, as more than one co-worker too many took a day off that day, leaving her and the rest a bit overworked, but aside from the little extra workload there was no harm done.

 She began walking her usual route to the bus stop when she jumped as two hands grabbed her by the shoulders. She screamed and turned around, the can of pepper spray ready in hand. There was the satisfying hissing sound as the spay left it’s canister, hindering her attacker defenseless as they experienced the hellish agony of pepper spray right on their one remaining eye.

 With the motion of turning around and pointing the can at Vriska, Jade incidentally hit Vriska’s face with the back of her hand, sending her glasses flying and leaving her only remaining eye vulnerable to the pepper spray from Hell. Vriska always thought that the whole pepper spray thing was silly, that it didn’t actually work and it was just an excuse for cowards to not get real means of defending themselves, like guns or knives. That’s why she thought whatever Jade threw in her face might have come from Hell itself, as it felt like it was melting her eye and burning her soul.

 “AAAAAAAAH! WHAT DID YOU DO?! WHAT DID YOU FUCKING DO?!”

 “Vriska? Is that you?”

 “OF COURSE IT’S ME YOU IDIOT!!!!!!!!”

 Vriska used the hand soap of the restroom in the flower shop to clean her face and then washed it as Jade instructed. There was still discomfort, but it wasn’t the unbearable torture she was feeling a minute ago. She wiped her face dry with the small towel and sighed.

 “That’s something I don’t want to go through again. Ever.”

 “I’m soooo sorry.”

 “Yeah, you said that already.”

 “Hmmm…I really liked what you did with your hair. If you don’t mind me saying, blonde fits you better. It’s exactly the same blonde as Rose’s hair! Oh, did you hear the big news? Kanaya asked-“

 “The pale bitch out on a date, I know.”

 “Hmmm, that is not a nice way to refer to her…but okay?”

 Jade took Vriska by the hand and lead her out of the flower shop so she could close it again. Back into the sleeve of her coat the small can went, the key to the store back into the purse and she turned to Vriska.

 “So, why did you drop by? You weren’t looking for flowers, were you? ‘Cause we don’t do business this late and night and…”

 “Actually, I have no idea why I got here, but…heeeeeeeey” she pulled jade closer and put one arm around her neck. “you and Kanaya are good friends, riiiiiiiight? Do you know where she is right now, maybe? Did she call you about something?”

 “No, I haven’t seen or talked to her since this afternoon. She’s probably on her date with Rose right now.”

 “Yeeeeeeeeah, I doubt that. Say, if Kanaya were on her way to her date with Miss I’m-So-Smart-And-Obnoxious and something happened on the way that would make her reconsider that awful decision, where would she go?”

 “…Is there something you are not telling me?”

 “Look, Kanaya’s future might be in danger, alright?”

 “OH NO! What happened?”

 “Rose happened and I tried to fix it, but then she ran and now I don’t know where she is.”

 “Rose seems like a really nice person, I don’t know how she could put Kanaya in danger. Plus, what is this about ‘fixing’ Kanaya?”

 “URGH! Look, here is this situation, try to keep up, alright? I…I’m in love with Kanaya, okay? This Rose bi-“

 “Oh my God! Really?! Oh this is so cute! Well…except that she is kinda already into…someone else…”

 “Yeah, and that’s what I tried to fix! This Rose isn’t right for her at aaaaaaaall! She went to my house on her way to her date and I…confessed to her.”

 “Oh my God! Oh the drama! Wow, this makes things really complicated…wait, did she run away because you confessed to her?”

 “Well…maybe I gave the impression that I…okay, I kissed her by force and might have given her a one year supply of hickies, but what else was I supposed to do?! I had to prove to her that I was serious!”

 “That was probably the worst way to go about it, you know.”

 “But at least there is no way she will go to that date now. She has nothing to cover my handiwork. I do want Rose to see them eventually thought. And by the time she sees them, I’ll be definitely covered in Kanaya’s love bruises too, you’ll see.”

 “I’m not an expert in Kanaya’s taste in women, but something tells me that someone who ruins her date with someone else out of jealousy isn’t her type. Is that why you dyed your hair? To look like Rose?”

 “URGH! Fine, I figure she might have a thing for blondes, but this only shows my commitment to her, right? I went out of my way to meet her tastes!”

 “Dying your hair isn’t enough to make someone love you, you know. And this doesn’t sound like you at all. Since when does Vriska Serket change herself to make others like her?”

 “…Maybe I’m willing to change for her…”

 “I’m pretty sure that your hair isn’t the thing that needs to change.”

 “URGH! This is pointless!”

 Vriska made her way to her vehicle, but Jade beat her to it. Jade Harley got on Vriska’s Harley and crossed her arms.

 “You are not leaving this place if you intend to go after Kanaya after what you did!”

 Vriska took a moment to think the situation over. She grabbed her spare helmet and shoved it on Jade’s head. She put her own helmet back on, pushed Jade back on the seat a bit to make more room for herself and departed, with her passenger punching her back, telling her to stop.

 

********

 “…but I’m getting side tracked again. Okay, so we arrived at the restaurant, right?”

 “Riiiiiiiight” Said Vriska as she eyed the remote of the TV. She intended to grab it and turn the TV on, as a way to say ‘shut the fuck up, I don’t care, I don’t wanna hear anymore’, but Aranea caught up on that and grabbed the remote before Vriska could make a move to it.

 “The place was really fancy and she got us the best table they had, and there was a violinist, and she ordered only the best things for us…”

 “Riiiiiiiight.”

 “But then two other women sat at our table…”

 “Oh…OH!” Vriska smiled as she let that last part sink in “a foursome on your anniversary? Wow, I take back everything bad I ever said about Porrim. And I thought Meenah was adventurous. Good for you, sis.”

  Vriska lifted her hand, requesting a high five. Aranea indulged her in it and her smile grew as she picked her cellphone.

 “Oh, it was something much better than a foursome. Take. A look. At. This.”

 “Okay, she’s pre…oh my…no. NO! BULLSHIT! BUUUUUUUULLSHIT!”

 Vriska snatched the phone off Aranea’s hand and her jaw dropped as she took a closer look at the picture in it. In the picture Aranea was raising a glass of champagne with another woman beside her. She was wearing less make up than she does on the TV show and she wasn’t wearing the silly ‘pirate’ outfit, but it was _her_. Mindfang. Well, the actress who plays the role of the sociopathic terror of the seas in the TV series. The other pictures had the actress who plays Dolorosa in them as well.

 Aranea and Vriska argued with each other since Vriska was able to form complete sentences, with intervals of fragile peace. That TV show, however, managed to bring them a bit closer. Vriska didn’t spend hours on the computer overanalyzing every second of the show and coming up with wild theories like Aranea (“I have a life, you know”), but they loved the show equally and Aranea thought it would be good to share the events of her and Porrim’s anniversary because of Porrim’s present.

 “Oh my…I can’t… Aranea, whatever it is that you are doing in bed for her, keep it up!”

 “This is not about sex, Vriska. She likes me so much that she actually convinced my idols to have dinner with us! And she doesn’t even like the show! Aaaaaaaah, feels good to be truly loved.”

 “Damn. I need to get me a Maryam too. Maybe Kanaya will take me to space, to a spa on a meteor.”

 “No. You leave her sister alone. It’s bad enough that you are convincing the poor woman to waste money buying new clothes for you. Who knows how else you’ll exploit the poor thing if you two start going out.”

 “She got me new clothes because she wanted to. Relax, I was just joking. We are just friends, that’s all.”

 “Good. We all know how your relationships end and I really don’t want that for Kanaya. Porrim would never look at my face again if you reduced her sister to a sobbing mess.”

 “It’s aaaaaaaall about you, isn’t it?”

 

********

  “You don’t even know where you are going!”

 “Shut up.”

 “This is kidnapping!”

 “Shut up.”

 “Seriously, Kanaya would never approve of that!”

 “I said shut up!”

 They had been driving aimlessly for about half an hour now and they hadn’t seen one single car that was at least the same color as Kanaya’s. They went to her home, but nobody was there. Vriska was starting to lose faith. They stopped  at a red light and Vriska was started thinking about where she would go if she were Kanaya, only to have her thoughts interrupted by Aranea’s voice.

“So there you are!” screamed Aranea as she stepped out of the car and striked a silly pose that Vriska identified as her trying to be dramatic.

“Oh fuck, not now!” Vriska removed her helmet and got off the bike, pushing her big sister back to her car. “You didn’t see me! You never saw me! You never knew me! Get back in your car and leave me the fuck alone, goddamnit!”

“You are unbelievable! You’re actually looking for Kanaya? And who’s that?” she gestured at Jade, who was still on the Harley.

“Just some meddling meddlepants, ignore her.”

“Hey!” jade took her helmet off, her hair a complete mess thanks to the helmet and the wind. “I have a name and it’s Jade!”

“Kanaya’s friend?” Aranea facepalmed herself, letting out a groan of frustration. “please tell me you aren’t trying to make Kanaya jealous.”

“Hell no!” responded Vriska “I don’t need this kind of bullshit!”

“I’m here to stop her from looking for Kanaya!” said Jade, with a serious voice, the voice of someone on a mission.

“Great job so far, guppy.” said Meenah, still in Aranea’s car with her feet on the panel. “I don’t even fink you tried at all!”

“S-shut up, fuckass!” Jade got off the bike, closed her hand into a fist and hit Vriska’s head softly with her knuckles. “Do you have any idea how hard it is to get an idea inside her thick skull?”

“I know it’s easy to get your hand inside her pants. Have you tried that?” said Meenah, making an obscene gesture with her left hand.

“Just fuck you all!” Screamed Vriska.

“And the word of the day, ladies and ladies” said Jade, with a playful voice, “Is ‘fuck’. Thanks for playing ‘How Diverse Is Vriska’s Vocabulary’!”

 They went back to the Harley and drove away, leaving Aranea and Meenah behind. There was a moment of silence, jade wrapped her arms around Vriska out of fear of falling now that Vriska was driving faster than before.

 “You really should listen to us. Your sister and I.”

 “Jade, what did I tell you before?”

 “Kanaya definitely doesn’t have a clear head right now after what you did, and neither do you. Wouldn’t it be better to go back to your house and sleep it off and talk to her more calmly tom-“

 “Jade, I swear to God, I’ll drop you with the motorcycle moving if you keep that up.”

 “I just want to help my friends.”

 “I didn’t ask for your help.”

 “Why do people say that? That’s a really silly thing to say, really.”

 “Do shut the fuck up.”

 During their wandering they passed by the amusement park and jade got a glimpse of a familiar face on the parking lot.

 “Porrim!”

 “Wha? Where?”

 “In the parking lot, over there!”

 “She might know where Kanaya is.”

 “She might put some sense in that head of yours.”

 They got into the parking lotand now had a better view of Porrim and the woman that was with her. They saw Porrim putting a ridiculously big stuffed bear in her car, they saw her give a skate board wrapped in present paper to the woman and they saw said woman showering Porrim with kisses.

 Vriska stopped her Harley abruptly. Her eye widened and her hands started to shake as her emotions began to take a hold on her. Vriska and Aranea have argued many times, they had physically fought a few times as well, Vriska was very angry at her sister for meddling in her love life and she blamed her sister for the state her love life is now. However, _Aranea is her sister_ and nobody, noooooooo8ody, CH8EA8S 8N H8R SI8TE8!!!!8!!!

 She clumsily got off her vehicle, threw her helmet on the ground and ran towards Porrim, with Jade close behind.

 “Vriska, wait!”

“HOWDAREYOUDOTHISTOMYSISTER?!”

 She had been in many fights before, she had been angry at a lot of people before, but this was different. The satisfaction of punching Porrim to the ground after what she was nothing like she felt before, as well was the anger that now ruled her mind. She had never been this angry before, and there was only one thing in her mind thanks to that.

 “I’LLTEARYOUAPARTYOUBITCH!”

 “Vriska stop!” Jade grabbed Vriska by the arm, but she just pushed the florist away.

  “Vriska, this isn’t-“

 Vriska interrupted Porrim by kicking her on the stomach. She never kicked anybody or anything so hard in her life. She would have kicked her again if a skate board hadn’t hit her on her face, making her stumble back.

 “Nobody hurts my gurl!”

 With another swing to the head with the sake board Latula sent Vriska to the ground. She was about to hit her again when Jade stopped her by grabbing her arm.

 “STOP! Please, no more!” She released Latula’s arm and helped Vriska stand up, one arm raised as a sign of surrender. “We are going now, I’m so sooooo sorry this happened.”

 “I’ll tear you both in-umfp”

 Jade covered Vriska’s mouth and pushed her in the direction of the Harley. She looked at Porrim and apologized again.

 “This isn’t over!” Said vriska as they put their helmets back on and drove away, going out of the parking lot and disappearing in the road.

 “What was that about?” asked Latula as she helped her girlfriend get back on her feet.

  “I…don’t know.”

 

********

 “Hey, I’m going to Happy Burger, do you want something?...wow…Vriska!”

 Her sister had always been more of the tomboy-ish type, and Aranea was certain she had never worn a dress. That is, until that moment. Vriska was admiring herself on the mirror, donning a simple yet charming white dress. For a moment she reminded Aranea of a fairy in a story she read once, the only thing missing was the wings. The majyyk was broken when she noticed the ugly sneakers she was wearing.

 “Vriska…wow…you look soooooooo cute!”

 “Don’t get used to it. I always look fabulous, but don’t expect to see me in something like this again anytime soon.”

  “Where did you get that?”

 Vriska turned back to the mirror and failed to repress a smile as she admired the dress again. Her mind playing over and over the process of the creation of that dress.

 “Kanaya made it for me.”

 “So she went through the trouble of making you a dress and you don’t plan in wearing it? You really need some lessons in friendship.”

 “It’s not like that! I like it. I really do. This shit is special, I should save it for something special.”

 “You don’t usually partake in events where such garments are required, dear sister.”

 “Heh, there are plenty of special occasions where I could wear this. I could wear it for a date with Kanaya, for example.”

  “Oh no. No! Absolutely not!”

 “Who do you think you are to tell me not to date someone?”

 “The girlfriend of the sister of the woman whose life you are planning to ruin.”

 “I’m not going to ruin anything! Hell, I might make her life eight times better!”

 “Vriska, please, pleeeeeeeease don’t do this. Porrim and Kanaya are very close, If something happens to Kanaya...”

 “Nothing will happen to Kanaya. Well, nothing that isn’t absolutely fucking great for her! I won’t let this end the same way as the others.”

  “Vriska I’m begging you.”

 “Soooooooorry, I’m all out of charity today. Go beg somewhere else.”

 “Look, if you really want to go after Kanaya…could you at least…take it slow?”

 “Oh, we lived together all this time, and yet you talk as if you don’t know me.”

 “Please. All I ask is for you to be more…tactful, okay? Charm her little by little, okay. Take it slow, don’t scare the poor thing away or traumatize her or anything.”

 “And why would I need to be ‘tactful’?”

  Aranea took her sister’s hand in hers and got on her knees, Vriska thought that she looked as if she was about to cry.

 “Please, Porrim means a lot to me. If you really want to go after her sister, please be careful with her. If anything happens to her then Porrim will never want to see me again.”

 “…URGH! Fine! I’ll ‘take it slow’ or whatever.”

 “THANK YOU! THANK YOU!”

 Aranea got back up and hugger her sister. For a moment they both shared the same thought. That was the first time they ever hugged. Hell, it was the first time anyone ever hugged Vriska. It felt…nice. Was this how Kanaya and Porrim felt all the time?

 “…you can let go now.”

 “Oh, right. I’ll get some Happy Burgers for us and when I get back we’ll talk strategy. I think that if we work together we might make you and Kanaya work.”

 “Ah crap. What did I get myself into?”

  “Who knows, someday you might even feel something for her that doesn’t come from between your legs for once!”

 Aranea left the room, leaving Vriska alone with her thoughts and the dress again. The played one more time the fun moments she spent with Kanaya while she was making the dress. The times they spent together in general. The moment when she made Vriska’s heart skip a beat for the first time. Yeah, she thinks that Kanaya might be worth the wait. And Aranea thinks all Vriska wants is to bed her.

 “This is not about sex.”

 

********

 “You useless piece of shit!”

  Vriska kicked her motorcycle and repressed a scream as pain took over her senses when her foot met metal.

 “Well, I guess this is the end of it.”

 The vehicle ran out of gas and now they were alone in the middle of the road. They both knew they weren’t any closer to find Kanaya, much to Jade’s satisfaction and Vriska’s torment. That whole campaign had been an exercise in futility. Jade took the handles of the bike in her hands and began to push the vehicle and Vriska limped next to her.

 “My home isn’t too far from here. We might get there before midnight.”

 “Any chance Kanaya will be there?”

 “When did you develop a one track mind anyway? Sheesh, Kanaya really did a number on you, didn’t she?”

 Their feet hurt like hell, but at last they arrived at Jade’s house. It wasn’t Kanaya-neat, but it was still well organized. Some plants here and there and-

 “OUCH! Get it off me! Get it off!”

 Vriska shook her leg, freeing her ankle from Bec’s jaws. The white furred puppy growled at the stranger who dared invade his domain. Sure, she came with Mommy Jade, but there was something off about her. Something wrong. She wasn’t like the kind strangers that came to visit Mommy Jade from time to time, she seemed more like an evil stranger. Why Mommy Jade brought an evil stranger with her would be discussed after he bathed in the evil stranger’s blood.

 “Keep that thing away from me!”

 “Vriska! It’s just a puppy.”

 Jade picked Bec up, petting him in an attempt to calm him down, but apparently he really didn’t like Vriska, as he kept growling at her.

 “His name is Bec. Isn’t he cute? I rescued him last month”

 “Good for you, Dr. Dolittle, now keep it away from me.”

  Sharing a bed with someone without being naked was a new experience for Vriska. Jade had no guest room and Vriska refused to sleep on the couch, so now they were sharing a bed. They had to fight for the covers a little, but they managed to settle down comfortably eventually.

 “Don’t try any funny business while I’m sleeping. Hear that, Harley?”

 “I’ll do my best to keep my hands to myself, Vriska.”

 “…I messed up real bad, didn’t I?”

 “Pretty much.”

 “I panicked. I acted without thinking and now I have no idea where she is or…what she might be thinking of me…”

 “Have you thought of just being happy for her? She really likes Rose and Rose seems to really like her too.”

 “That shit just isn’t for me.”

 “Sometimes our heart desires someone it cannot have. At times like this all we can do is accept it and move on.”

 “…Yeah, I don’t think I can do that. What about you, Haley?”

 “What do you mean?”

 “Are you after somebody too?”

 “…Goodnight, Vriska.”

 “Okay. ‘Night.”

 


	10. Saturday Morning Cartoon

 It was a bit hard to see the things that were above the water, and her target was significantly distant from her watery queendom, but this wasn’t the first time she preyed upon those who live beyond her domain.  Schools of fishes circled around her from a safe distance, fearful of their ruler, but eager to see her in action. The double ended trident felt familiar in her grasp, as if it were a natural extension of her arm. She aimed carefully and tossed her trident towards the sky, where her prey dwelled.

 The trident was propelled out of the water by the great force of its wilder, traversing the air rapidly, nearing its unsuspecting target. The flying slices of bacon were caught by surprise as their leader was brutally stabbed by a golden trident. The group dispersed in all directions as its leader fell.

 Her prey was falling, soon it would hit the water. However, soon isn’t soon enough for the ruler of the sea, she is hungry now! Meenah swimmed upwards as fast as a torpedo, launching herself out of the sea so she could catch her prey and feast in mid air. The distance between her and the flying piece of bacon closed as she opened her mouth, bearing her white and sharp shark-like teeth. Unfortunately for our merciless sea ruler she could not reach her prey in time, for reality was faster.

 Meenah was taken out of her dream as she landed face first on the carpeted floor of the living room of the Serket household. The morning light coming from the windows burned her eyes as she opened them, and the very real smell of very real bacon was in the air. Her head struggled with the fact that it was morning already and, as always, she felt like she didn’t  have enough sleep. Were she the ruler of the world she would have the person who created mornings –EX-ECULL-ED!

 She crossed her arms bellow her head as to  improvise a pillow and tried to go back to sleep, but sleep did not come and it took a little while for her to come to terms with the fact that her day had already started and now she had to go back to being a functional human again.

 “Aranea! I’m awake!”

 “Good for you, Meenah” replied Aranea from the kitchen.

 “Is da breakfast ready?!”

 “You bet.”

 She stayed there for a little while on the floor, next to the couch where she slept, waiting for the food to arrive. It didn’t.

 “Aranea! I’m hungry! Water taking you salmon?”

 “Salmon? Oh, ‘so long’. I told you, I already prepared your breakfast for you.”

 “Then get it ouster here!”

 “Come and get it yourself.”

 “But ma mouth is ouster here!”

 No reply and no food. There is no other option, if she wants to eat then she must stand up. The laws of physic don’t work the way they should during mornings. Her body feels heavier, as if gravity was bent on screwing with her in particular. Getting up proved to be a monumental task, using every bit of strength she could gather. Miraculously she manages to get on her feet and maintain balance, and it’s still 7 am. Truly a miracle.

 As astonishing as her feat of being up so soon on a Saturday was, her journey was only beginning. One foot in front of the other, she slowly made her way to the kitchen. The journey became harder and harder with each step. Damn whoever designed this house and put the kitchen so far away from the living room. It takes her a total of 32 steps to get to the kitchen, where eggs and bacon awaited her.

 Meenah felt a little bit disappointed, she expected more. Back when she and Aranea were dating, her blabbermouth of a gillfrond would make a huge breakfast for her , take it to her in bed and feed her while she watched cartoons. Were it not for her ridiculous metabolism Aranea ‘s spoiling would have made Meenah have probably the double of the weigh she has now.

 Now things have changed. Serket isn’t her gillfrond anemonemore so it seems that big three course breakfast isn’t gonna happen. If she had known that was the case Meenah would have asked Aranea to drop her at her place, instead of crashing at the Serket house. The moment Meenah sat down at the table Aranea took her plate and left the kitchen.

 “Hey, where are ya dolphin?”

“To the living room, of course.”

“But I just got ‘ere!”

 No reply. Meenah stared at her plate a little while before picking it up and making the journey back to where she began. The travel back seemed harder than the one before it, her body threatening to succumb to gravity at any moment. Why is existing in the morning so glubbing difficult?

 32 steps later she was finally back to the living room. Aranea was sitting on the floor, her legs crossed and her plate on the coffee table. She looked up at Meenah and smiled. That smug smile. There she is, smiling as if being awake and active at 7 am on a Saturday was something a normal human being could just do without any effort. Coddamnit Serket!

 Meenah placed her plate on the coffee table and sat down next to her friend. She opened her mouth and stayed that way for a short time. Aranea just ignored her, eating her breakfast and staring at the TV. Some dumb show about green people. She poked Aranea a couple of times and pointed at her open mouth when her friend looked at her.

 “Something wrong, Meenah?”

“Yeah, I’m hungry an’ there’s no food in ma breakfast hole”

 “You don’t expect me to spoon feed you, do you?”

 “But you always feed me breakfast before!”

 “Yes, when we were dating. We are just friends now, so you have to learn how to feed yourself.”

 ‘Tis was quite the depressing revelation to Meenah. Seems like the whole breakfast thing was part of the gillfrond package, and now that Meenah had canceled that subscription all the benefits were gone with it. It’s been well over a year since they broke up, which made Meenah feel dumb for not having figured that out sooner.

 She had no spoon, no fork and no knife, because she expected Aranea to do all the hard work, and her feet hurt just by thinking in making the dreadful journey back to the kitchen. No, forget that. Meenah has no time for that bullshit. She just kept her mouth open. It took a while, but Aranea eventually gave in and started spoon-feeding her stubborn ex-girlfriend. Meenah smiled triumphantly as she chewed her food, a smile that became harder to contain as Aranea rolled her eyes.

 Meenah’s eyes wandered as Aranea fed her and they happened to come across the clock on the wall. 7:34 a.m., her new favorite cartoon had already started! She reached for the remote and quickly zapped though the channels, ignoring Aranea’s ‘I was watching that!’ protests. She made it just as the theme song was ending. Aranea let her spoon fall as she heard the up beat feel last lines of the opening.

 “…Squiddles? You watch My Little Squiddles: Friendship is Important?”

 “Don’t look at me like that, Serket. Your taste in TV shows ain’t that great either”

 “…Ha…Hahahah! Oh, I can’t wait to tell my friends my badbass ex-girlfriend turned out to be a squiddler! Dodged that bullet, hahaha!”

 “Hey! I’m no squiddler! I have nofin to do with those basstards, I just watch the show. The fandom is a blowhole, but the cartoon is good.”

 “Okay, waterever you say, Meenah.”

 Aranea watched Meenah watching her cartoon for a little while, and the goffy yet cute expression on her face as she enjoyed her pastel colored octopuses reminded her why she fell for that delinquent all those years ago. Remembrance brought with it realization, it was strange realizing how Meenah was still the same and yet much different from what she was when they first met. She still enjoyed a few of the stereotypical teenage delinquent things, but she still managed to be a lot more mature than that brat who terrorized Prospit High. Actually managing to live on her own, without her mother’s money and pursuing her dream to be a marine biologist, she had gone beyond what people expected of her.

 Aranea couldn’t help but to feel proud of her ex. Something most people would never dream of admitting about their respective failed attempts at love.

 Suddenly the squiddles thing made a bit of sense. With her love for aquatic life, liking a cartoon about octopuses (even ridiculously cartoonish octopuses) wasn’t much of a stretch for Meenah.

 Meenah took her gaze away from the TV an instant and noticed Aranea checking on her phone, sighing before putting it back on her pocket.

 “Expecting a call from Porrim?”

 “Ah? No, it’s…it’s nothing, nevermind.”

 “Oh, your sis never came back home, did she?”

 “No. She must be fine, though.”

 “…you know, when Princess Wave became Empress Tsunami and was banished to the Abyssal Zone by her sister, Princess Tide, she became-“

 “Sorry Meenah, but I think my situation with Vriska is more complicated than what your octopuses go through.”

 “Shhhhhhhhh! My turtle to tell stories now, so shhhhhhhh!”

 Aranea kept her mouth shut, which was a new and strange experience. That novelty, however, was overshadowed by the fact that Meenah wanted to tell her a story. Even if Meenah’s story turned out to not be helpful at all, the exchange of dynamics itself was entertaining enough for Aranea.

 “As I was seaing, Empress Tsunami was a very bitter beach, but that’s because those closest to her were always acting like they didn’t care boat her.”

 “But I ca-“

 “SHHHHHHH! Princess Tide always tried to be nice, but she was very shellfish. Even when she tied to be al-trout-istic she always put hershell first.”

 “I really don’t see how-“

 “I’ll slap you, Serket! I swear to Cod! Anyway, it was all about her, every good thing she did was so other squiddles would acknowledge her. It was all boat her, everyfin. So her sis got fed up with that and tied to do the same to get her sis’ attention for a while. Probubble is that she fucked up and instead of being shellfish good she became shellfish bad, that’s why she got her bass kicked. Are you following?”

 “Yes, Meenah. I don’t know where you’re going wi-“

 “OKAY! So things got fixed when Tide and Tsunami admitted they were both shellfish beaches and truly started caring for one another. That’s what you and Serket 2.0 need to do.”

 “Are you calling me selfish?!”

 “Serket, I loved you. I reely did, I wash happy with you and all, but I wash not stupid. Our relationship was more boat _you_ than boat _us_ and you know that.”

 “I can’t believe what I’m hearing!”

  Meenah sighed in frustration, gently patting Aranea on her back in a attempt to calm her down.

 “Our break up went well didn’t it?”

 “Yes, it did. Why are you-“

 “Shhhhhh. Just answer my questions, okay? Now, what did you do after our break up?”

 “Well, I started dating Porrim and-“

 “Before that, Serket”

 “There was nothing before that!”

 “You walked right up to the road and Porrim almost ran you over. Then when she went check up on you, you started crying. I saw it” she added that last bit when Aranea gave her a confused look “Why were you crying if we broke up on nice terms?”

 “Well, we were together a long ti-“

 “Why, Serket?”

 “Our relationship meant a lot to-“

 “Whyyyyyyyy, Serket?”

 “Because…because it didn’t go as I expected. I was hoping you’d be…devastated. That you’d beg for me to stay. Cry for me. Maybe even…throw yourself at my feet. Just a little.”

 Aranea kept these things in the back of her mind for a long time. Admitting those things out loud was the most shameful thing she ever did and it seemed to add to the weigh on her shoulders instead of lifting it. The fact that Meenah seemed to know this all this time only made it worse. Aranea liked the idea that she was an empath in some level, that she could feel what people felt and read their minds in some way. Knowing that Meenah could read her mind better than she could read Meenah’s worsened the situation.

 “Even our break up was about you.”

 “Break ups tend to be one-sided.”

 “Oh, you know what I meant.”

  ‘Shellfish’. Aranea wished she actually had a shell to retreat into. Thoughts of self loathing started clouding her mind, but dissipated as quickly as they began when Meenah hugged her tight and kissed her forehead.

 “Yer not bad, Serket. Egotistic ,sure, but not bad. Not the best role model for a little kid, but still better than your mom. Yer sis is a nasty piece of work, but not totally. The best part of her came from you. You two just need to sit down, take a deep breath and admit that you are two shellfish beaches. Maybe then you’ll truly start finking boat each other, instead of thinking what the other can do for you. Is all smooth sailing after that.”

 “You have one weird way of helping people.”

 “I know,Serket.” Said Meenah, as she caressed Aranea’s hair. “I know.”

 

********

  “Keep your hands to yourself my ass.” Vriska said right after waking up, finding that she and Jade were in a spooning position, and she was the little spoon.

 She grabbed Jade’s arm and threw it of her, feeling a bit disappointed when it didn’t wake her up. She grunted loudly as she got out of bed and stretched, looking back at Jade who was still sleeping soundly. Nope, still asleep. She pounded her feet on the floor as she walked to the door, but Jade kept sleeping regardless. Vriska gave up that little morning game and started looking around for the bathroom.

  It didn’t take long for her to start hearing Bec’s growling. She turned back and there was the white furred puppy, his teeth showing, his ears up and his head pushed forward. He dashed towards Vriska, barking as loudly as he could. Vriska stomped on the floor and shouted, raising her arms in the air and baring her teeth. The lack of her glasses, which hid the scar tissue covering were once was her left eye, made her look significantly scarier to the little puppy, who slided on the floor as his charge came to a sudden halt. He stopped sliding just a few centimeters from Vriska and rushed to a darkened room to which the door was ajar. Vriska could still hear him growling from the dark.

 “Is that my toothbrush? That’s my toothbrush!”

  Vriska was in the middle of oral health maintenance when Jade finally appeared, wide awake and with the worst case of bed hair Vriska had ever seen. It reminded her of a bracken  bush in a way. Vriska finished up brushing her teeth and handed the toothbrush to Jade as she left the bathroom.

 “All yours.”

“Ewwwwwww! Vriska!”

 “What? I’ve been using Aranea’s for months and look, perfect teeth!”

 She smiled, showing her perfect rolls of pearly whites, which still got a longer ‘ew’ from Jade as she casually dropped the toothbrush in the trash.

 “What?”

 “That’s even grosser. Do you know what your sister puts in her mouth?”

 “Miss Blabbermouth only eats healthy stuff that Porrim buys for…oh. Porrim.”

 “No insult to Porrim, but…ewwwww.”

 Jade put some tooth paste on her index finger and improvised. After she was done with her teeth she went to the kitchen, where Vriska awaited sitting by the table, remind Jade that she was a guest, and that as a host Jade had to provide only the best she had to poor starving Vriska, who only had half a can of cheap beer for dinner in the previous night.

 “Kanaya made me spill the rest.”

 “And here we go again.”

 “What?”

 “All I hear since you showed up last night is Kanaya, Kanaya, Kanaya!”

 “Got a problem with that?”

 “Well, is a bit creepy seeing you obsessed like that. It’s not like you at all.”

 “I love her, that’s what people do when they love someone, they talk about them. Especially when that person is making the biggest mistake of their life!”

 “Really? Kanaya is the one who made a big mistake last night?”

 “Yeah, she wanted to go on a date with the albino bitch.”

 Jade looked away from her frying pan and glared at Vriska , raising her spatula as if preparing to hit Vriska with it, even though there was a considerable distance from her and where Vriska was sitting. Vriska rolled her eye and sighed.

 “Fine. On a date with Roooooooose. Happy now?”

 “I know you’re jealous, but that’s no excuse to talk about Rose like that. It’s not only impolite, but very immature. How old are you again?”

 “23, and hurry up with the breakfast!”

 “…Hmmm…funny. I’m 23 too. So are Kanaya and Rose. Porrim and your Sister are both 26, right?”

 “Where are you getting at?”

 “Oh, nowhere. It’s just a funny everybody involved in this soap opera has the same age. Anyway, you’re being childish and you need to stop.”

  Jade placed the plate with Vriska’s breakfast before her and poured some orange juice in a glass for her, then sitting on the other side of the table to eat her breakfast as well.

 “That’s it? An egg on a piece of toast? Is my starvation a joke to you, Harley?!”

 “It’s what I have. Not everybody has a sister from whose purse they can steal money.”

  “I WON’T STAY HERE AND LISTEN TO THIS BASELESS ACCUSATIONS!!!!!!!!”

  “Eat your breakfast, Vriska!”

  “…I’ll let it slide because I’m in a good mood.”

 They ate in silence, with Vriska squinting her eye ate Jade the whole time as Jade ignored it. When she finished Vriska left the glass and plate on the table, out of childish spite to give slightly more work to Jade with the dishes, and when back to Jade’s room to look for her glasses. When she finally found them Jade had already washed the dishes and was on the living room, watching commercials. Vriska sat beside her and took the remote from her hands,  starting to channel surf.

 “Hey, I was watching!”

 “As the guest, my entertainment should come before yours.”

  Jade took the remote back from Vriska and switched back to the channel she was watching.

 “if you’re going to be a sucky guest then I’ll be a sucky host. So there!”

 She tuck her tongue out at Vriska and waited patiently for the commercials to end. The screen was black for a few seconds before the animation started fading in, vibrant pastel colors filled the screen and cartoonish depictions of octopuses appeared.

 “Pfffffff. Squiddles? And you call _me_ childish?”

 “I simply enjoy a fun Saturday morning cartoon, instead of throwing petty insults willy-nilly about a woman who has done nothing to me and just happened to get the attention of my crush.”

 “Why should I threat Rose in any other way? She’s totally wrong for-“

 “Na-na-na-na-na! Not listening!”

“Who’s being childish now?”

 “It’s still you! You’re selfish and petty and very very childish and you still wonder why Kanaya prefers Rose over you! Not being able to get over it and move on is a veeeery big sign of emotional immaturity! It’s like you’re stuck at 13 or something!”

 “It’s not immaturity!”

 “Then what is it?!”

 Vriska opened her mouth but no reply came out. She closed her mouth and just stayed there, on the sofa, next to Jade, watching her silly cartoon.

 “I really love her, you know. I’ve been with a bunch of women before, but Kanaya is…different.”

 Jade didn’t say anything, preferring to focus on her TV.

 “What I did last night was stupid. When she told me she was going on a date with Rose on that night I just panicked. I had this whole plan, this iron on the fire, where we’d pretend to be dating to make Rose jealous, and I’d show her how good I can be and Rose would just vanish from her mind. I’m not good with spontaneous things, doing something without a plan first always comes back to bite me in the ass. And plans…well, sometimes plans just don’t even get of the ground, and that sucks.”

  “What about not doing anything at all? What about just letting Kanaya be happy with Rose?”

 “Like you said, I’m selfish. I’m aware of that and honestly I’m not ashamed. I want Kanaya to be happy, but I also want to be the one to make her happy. Letting her be happy with someone else…I just can’t do it. This ‘if you love it, set it free’ thing is pure bullshit”

 “Do you really think Kanaya will be happy with someone so selfish?”

 “I sure as hell hope so.”

 “The happiness of my friends is important to me. If you keep trying to ruin Kanaya’s happiness out of selfishness then Rose won’t be the only one you’ll have to worry about.”

 Vriska blinked and looked at Jade. She wasn’t as tall as Vriska, she was thinner and probably weaker. She looked as menacing as her puppy. Yet, the way she looked at Vriska and frowned affected Vriska in some way. Not fear, but something else that she couldn’t put her finger on.

 “Aren’t I your friend too?”

 “You haven’t been a very good friend lately”

  One more moment of silence. The cartoon octopuses were having an argument about something and one of them declared that it didn’t want to see the other ever again, which was followed by gasps from the rest of the cast, accompanied by overly dramatic background music. The screen faded to black and the commercials started.”

  “What about Porrim? Are you going to tell Aranea?”

 She hadn’t thought about that. Her first thought was to not tell her, she still blamed her for missing her chance with Kanaya and she thought that Porrim’s cheating was the perfect karma. However, she _wanted_ to tell. She wanted to tell everything. Eeeeeeeeverything. No matter how many times she repeated to herself that Aranea deserved it, she wanted to tell. But why? She would be devastated, sure, that would be a punishment to, but…that wasn’t the reason. Then why?

 “I’m not sure.”

 “You beat her pretty bad.”

 “It was…spontaneous.”

 “Are you prepared for when it bites you in the ass?”

 “No at all.”

 

*********

 Kanaya ignored Porrim’s good morning greeting. She ignored her when she asked what she wanted for breakfast and ignored her when she asked how the date with Rose went. Kanaya hadn’t spoken a word with her ever since she told her about Latula and about how  she had been dating her and Aranea for almost the same period of time and neither suspected anything. Kanaya literally kicked her out of her room and locked the door.

 Porrim’s eyes kept wandering to her sister’s neck, to the ridiculous amount of lovebites. She made a few comments about it during breakfast and Kanaya kept ignoring her. After Kanaya finished her breakfast she went to the living room and sat at the big sofa, flipping through channels, Porrim joined her soon after.

 “Saturday morning, huh? It’s like they save the worst they have for the weekends.”

 Kanaya turned the TV off, left the remote on the sofa and just stood there, with her arms crossed. Porrim picked the remote up and turned the TV back on.

 “I’m sure we can find something to watch, though.  Oh. Squiddles. Can’t believe they still air that. Seems different from what I remember. They must have made another reboot. Guess they have to keep up with the times, just like everybody else.”

 Kanaya stayed silent, her arms still crossed.

 “I guess our generation was the…second? Remember when we were kids? We once braided our hairs together, because we wanted to be tangle buddies, but we don’t have tentacles so we improvised with our hairs”

 Finally Kanaya made a sound. A chuckle. But she remained with the same expression, something between neutral and upset.

 “Mother was climbing on the walls when she found us, we were crying because we couldn’t undo the braids, and Mommy  said that there was no way of separating us and that we would be like that for the rest of our lives. You said you didn't mind, because-“

 “Because then I could be with you forever.” Kanaya completed.

 “You cried more when they cut our hair than when we couldn't undo our braids.”

 “Because then we wouldn't be together forever anymore. Mother and Mommy should have let us stay like that, so one could always stop the other from making mistakes.”

 “I’m not proud of what I've been doing to Aranea and Latula.”

 “Then why do it?”

 “I love them. I love them both. I was going to tell them in the beginning, but…I got scared. Life is hard. Being a woman, being gay, being poly. There is always something people don’t get. I was afraid they wouldn't understand, and that I would end up losing both. It doesn't justify what I did, but that’s why. Now I don’t think I can keep it from them much longer.”

 “You brought this on yourself”

“I know”

Kanaya sighed heavily and leaned to the side, resting her head on Porrim’s shoulder.

 “It’s a horrible ordeal, isn't it? Always having to hide who we are?”

 “Yes, it is.”

“I think that what you've done is wrong. But I shouldn't be mad at you, it’s not my place. I’m sorry, and I forgive you”

 Porrim put one arm around Kanaya’s shoulder and took one of Kanaya's hands into her free hand.

 “Thank you. There are so many people who have the right to hate me. If you were to hate me too, I don’t know what I would do with myself.”

 “What are you going to do?”

 “On the past few days I’ve been thinking in introducing them to each other. Well, I’ve been thinking about that for a long time, but now I wanted to present them at the family dinner, when our moms get back home. When I can’t sleep I…imagine different scenarios in which they meet. I’ve became used to the idea that they’ll accept it and that over time they will…love each other as well, and then the three of us could be together. They don’t need to like each other for it to work, but…I want that. I want them to love each other as they love me and I love them. For me that would be perfect.”

  “But it’s not that simple, is it?”

 “Real life never is so perfect and forgiving. One week until family dinner, but maybe the secret won’t last that long. Vriska and Jade saw me with Latula last night.”

 “Vriska?”

 “Yes. She gave me a beating too. I deserved that.”

 “No you didn’t!”

“But enough about that. I don’t need to burden you with my problems. You have your own girl to look after. By the marks on your neck I take it the night went excitingly well for you.”

 “Not quite.”

 “Could you elaborate? Did something bad happen between you and Rose?”

 “These marks were made by Rose” she said as she pointed to one side of her neck “these were made by Vriska.”

 “…What?”

 “I went to Vriska’s residence to tell her that I had abandoned her jealousy tactic, and then she…confessed to me. In a most physical form.”

 “And then?”

“I ran away. I hid her marks with a scarf, but Rose saw through that. I guess she…enjoys the competition.”

 Porrim counted the lovebites. Rose’s side had one more than Vriska’s. Was this a game to her? Does this Rose think Kanaya was something she could just play with?

 “Unacceptable! You’re a woman, not some prize in some game! What about Vriska? Did you let her do this to you when you were going to a date with someone else?

 “She…may have…in a way…forced herself on me.”

 “Seems like I wasn’t the only one who deserved a beating last night. At least now I don’t need to feel guilty for letting Latula hit her too.”

 “Not exactly. I…may have enjoyed it.”

 “Irrelevant! Consent is paramount! If you didn’t consent then-“

 “I know, I know. What I mean is that I think I love her too.”

 “Oh. Oh!”

 “Not like that! I mean, it is like that, but not like that which you are thinking. I’m not poly like you. At least, I don’t think I am”

 “Well, for many it is a confusing realization. It took me some time to realize it and be comfortable with it”

 “I would not recommend you to keep your hopes up. I love them both, but I don’t think I love them the same way you love Aranea and Latula. It’s complicated. Like a whirlwind in my head. I love both of them but I don’t want to be with both of them. It’s as if the two feelings are in conflict, one trying to erase the other.”

 Porrim pulled Kanaya tighter against her, kissing her on the forehead.

 “Can I choose to be poly?”

 “I’m pretty sure it’s just like being gay.”

 “Then I’m officially fucked.”

“Such is the fate of the Maryams. Being irresistible to other women is both our gift and our curse. Our moms did warn us.”

 Porrim ran her fingers on Kanaya’s hair, still unhappy with how short it is now. Making Kanaya changer her hair, her taste in clothes and now treating her like part of some game. This Rose of hers better be worth it, otherwise the beating she got from Vriska will be nothing compared to what she will do to Rose. Vriska as well, Porrim won’t forget this assault on her sister any time soon. Kanaya intertwined her finger’s with Porrim’s, snuggling closer to her.

 “I love you, tangle buddy” said Kanaya.

 “I love you too”

“Does this mean I’m part of your harem now?”

 “Oh, most definitely!” Porrim responded in jest “in fact, you’re at the very top of the hierarchy! Nothing but the best treatment and the purest love for you.”

  On the TV all the main character’s of the Squiddles’ show were reunited. The main character said out loud the lesson she and her friends leaned that day. The silly one of the group added her two cents, completely missing the moral of the story and making the whole group laugh together as the screen faded into black.


End file.
